Little Seer
by HuskyWalker
Summary: Voldemort won the first war and Harry is happy to live as an unnoticed squib at Hogwarts. Unfortunately visions and rebels don't allow that and Harry soon catch the attention of the dark lord.
1. Chapter 1

**Yay, I am back in a country where I can actually understand what people say, and with a renewed fear for needles. Luckily my sister is fine, at least physical. The mental part is always debatable when it comes to my family.**

**Anyway, I just didn't know what to do with the Road to Heaven, so instead I started with this one. Hope you enjoy it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**Beta: angelhitomie**

In the lowest level of the castle time seemed to be still. It could be because there were no windows and no clock to tell the time apart. Once one stepped down there it was like stepping into an entirely different dimension. And only when you walked up the narrow stairs and through the door you would return to the world of the living. A war could break out and he doubted very much he would notice it as long as he was down there.

Standing among the cauldrons with different states of finished potions a young man stood. His black hair, usually messy and with a tendency to defy gravity, was tied with a simple leather ribbon. His green eyes were narrowed in concentration and the tip of his tongue stuck out between his lips. A slender and pale hand was holding the knife he used to chop the ingredients he had been ordered to prepare.

At the age of sixteen Harry Potter could soon be considered an adult in the Wizarding world, though judging from the form of his face and hands he was build more lithe and petite than most young men at his age usually would be.

When the door to the Potions laboratory was slammed open Harry jumped in surprise. "Scarhead!" Knowing of only one who would call him that and willingly enter the room without fearing the other person who usually residenced there, Harry felt his body relax on its own accord.

He picked up the knife which he had dropped and went back to his precious task. "Draco, is there something you want?" The slightly older blond hesitated in the doorway at the tone of his voice. Then Harry heard the door close, much softer than when it had been opened and then he heard the sound of soft footsteps which carried their owner over to him.

"Don't be like that Harry. I haven't seen you in ages." The blond exclaimed as he jumped to sit on a clean part of the table, so close that his body brushed against Harry's own in the process.

Glancing over at the blond Harry let a small smile grace his face. Draco, as always, was dressed in elegant robes, tonight more than usually. The pale blue robes clung to his body which was fit from many hours of duelling. It could hardly have been more different from Harry's black robe which was well used and seemed to absorb his body.

The shoulder long hair was forced back into a tight ponytail. Quite unlike Harry's own hair not a single stand was out of place. Grey eyes were watching him closely while the blond was smiling, something which not many had been privileged to see. "It is hardly forever. You have spent the last four days at the Greengrass residence, trying to court the youngest daughter, Astoria, with your father's blessing." Harry answered, focussing back on his task.

"Some day Harry, I am going to figure out how you know everything before everyone else. The dark lord has only just given his blessing for our families to be joined, and yet you talk about it, as if it was made public long ago." Draco promised.

Harry winced at his own slip up. As Severus said, he really needed to learn to think before he opened his mouth. One day he would open his mouth around the wrong person and then it would all be over.

He picked up the toad tongues and dumped them in the container. It would be a cold day in hell before Draco figured out his secret, or anyone else. If Harry had a say in it he would make sure that it was never found it. The amount of people who knew his secret was more than enough for him.

"Honestly, Harry." Draco said, waving a finger in front of his face, sounding as if he was a child in need of a scolding. "One would think that you would be a little happier to see me."

Rolling his eyes Harry took a step away from the work table before he swept down in a deep bow. "Honoured Heir Malfoy. This mere squib is grateful for every single second I am able to spend in your presence."

"You are a downright prat, though if you keep acting that way I might just forgive you." Draco said, letting Harry understand that he had avoided offending Draco. Scoffing when Harry did not react to his words Draco continued. "But it doesn't matter right now. What is important is that the party of the year is going on upstairs and yet you can be found here in the cold and dusty dungeon."

While Draco was ranting Harry wrote a label on the container before placing it on the shelf where he knew that Severus would be able to find it when he would need the ingredient. "The fires keep the place warm and I doubt that any dust would dare to set a foot in this place in fear of facing your godfather's wrath." Harry said. Unlike the other times Draco's face did not lit up at the mention of Severus. Resigned Harry already knew that something drastically would have to happen to deter Draco from whatever the blond was hell bend on getting done. However Harry doubted that the castle would start falling down around their ears.

"That is not what I meant, Scarhead. What I meant is that it is our lord's birthday and yet Severus assigned you chores. You are going to miss the firework." Draco said with a pout evident in his voice. "Scourgify."

He clenched and flexed his now clean hands. "Trust you to focus on what is the most important thing. And it is not like I am allowed to attend the Dark Lord's party so Severus is in fact doing me a favour by giving me something to do." Harry replied with a shrug.

When he tried to leave Draco's hand clamped down on his arm, effectively keeping him in place.

Harry turned around to look at Draco. The blond had gotten down from the table and stood towering over him by a whole head, making Harry aware of just how much smaller he was than the wizard."I know that look on your face. Draco, whatever you are plotting, just drop it." Harry warned, recognising the grin Draco spotted.

The blond ignored his protests and started dragging him towards the door. Harry, not wanting to take part in whatever was going to happen, tried to dig his heals in the floor. In response Draco yanked him forward so Harry lost his balance and was forced to stumble after him. "Stop being such a spoil sport Scarhead. I refuse to party the night away while one of my friends is working like a slave right under my feet." The words froze Harry, giving Draco the peace he needed to drag him through the dungeon and up to the lower levels of the castle.

When Harry got a hold of himself they had already left the dungeon behind them. By now he knew that it would be useless to continue his protests. It would only catch others' attention, which was the last thing Harry wished for. Instead he opted for admiring his surroundings.

Hogwarts had once been a school, created by the four founders. While it still had that function since the dark's victory only pureblood children and privileged halfbloods were allowed to study at the school. What happened to the muggleborns, Harry had never been able to figure out.

Not only was it a school but the place was also the home of the dark lord and some of his followers. Even when housing that many people the castle was big enough for it to be easy to find an empty spot where no one would disturb them.

Because of it being the dark lord's birthday the whole castle was decorated in green and silver. As a direct descendant of the great Salazar Slytherin, one of the aforementioned four founders, the dark lord had taken up the title as lord Slytherin in his youth. Harry guessed that it was one of the reasons to why so many of the pureblood families had decided to follow the man and still did.

Even before they came near the Great Hall the sound of music and voices reached his ears. After spending the whole day in the silence of the Potions laboratory it sounded rather overwhelming to Harry.

While walking Draco had shifted his hold so instead of his arm the blond was now grasping his hand. Though keeping his eyes on Draco, as much as he could while keeping his head bowed, Harry was aware that the portraits were watching them. Charms were placed on the portraits to stop them from annoying passerby. Unless one approached them or in case of an emergency they would not be able to speak with others than themselves.

"I think that the Astronomy Tower will do well. It is the highest point here and since the firework is placed on the other side of the lake it'll give us a perfect view of the whole show." At Draco's words Harry allowed himself to smile. He already knew that it would be a spectacular view.

They neared the Great Hall. Because of the many guests visiting tonight the ways they could usually have taken to avoid this place had been blocked with different wards. It stopped people from wandering around and getting into things they had absolutely nothing to do with.

Harry stepped closer to Draco, until he walked as a second shadow behind the wizard. Draco seemed to tense too, as if he had started to doubt his own idea. However if Harry knew one thing about Draco it was that the blond would never go back on something he had decide on. It would be the same as admitting that he was wrong. And a Malfoy never made a mistake. At least they never admitted it openly.

The smell of food reached them, making Harry's stomach rumble. He could distinctly recall that a houseelf had appeared with his lunch but at that time he had been too busy to eat any of it. Even if he went back to get it, the food would undoubtedly already have been removed.

Severus was probably going to kill him for forgetting to eat, again.

Harry grew tense as they rounded the corner and he saw the open double doors to the Great Hall. Instead of the usually four student tables, several round tables had been placed around the room. The Head table, where the headmaster and professors normally sat, was still there. After all the Dark Lord and his most trusted followers could not be expected to eat with those under them.

His body tensed as they passed a large group of purebloods standing next to the door. Seeing that none of them wasted a glance in their direction Harry let out a breath he did not know he had been holding. Perhaps Draco's idea would not turn out as bad as he had expected it would.

"There you are, my dearest little Draky." Both boys tensed at the voice, but for different reasons. Draco, because of the nickname, which, if the slight scowl on his face was anything to go by, was not appreciated. And Harry because he easily recognised the voice. He had really hoped that this would not come true.

Bellatrix Lestrange was the middle of the three Black sisters. With her thick, shiny and dark hair and thin lips and heavily lidded eyes with long eyelashes and a strong jaw it was easy to see, that she had been a Black before her marriage, though Harry could recall that she had not belonged to the main family. As always the witch was dressed in a low cut, black dress which easily showed of her womanly forms. Despite not being interested in the opposite gender he understood why so many found it hard to look away from her. She was also the only woman who had managed to work her way into the inner circle. Rumours had it that she was a deathly force to meet on the battlefield.

The woman was flanked by Rodolphus Lestrange, her husband, and Rabastan Lestrange, his brother. They looked quite opposite each other, despite having the same colouring. Where Rabastan was a quite thin man, his brother was more thickly build. But there was no way to deny that they were closely related. Though that could be said about most purebloods.

If Harry had hoped that they would be there to restrict Bellatrix from doing anything damaging he soon found that it was not the case. From the look of it the two wizards were just as bored as her and wanted something to happen.

It was just Harry's luck that they apparently had decided that he and Draco would make a good distraction.

With a blank face Draco turned around, tugging Harry until the brunet was standing half behind him rather than next to him. "Aunt Bellatrix, uncle Rodolphus and Rabastan. Is there something which I can help you with?" Draco said, his voice not wavering despite the danger they were both aware was hovering over them.

By the gleeful expression on Bellatrix's face Harry assumed that Draco had said just the thing she wanted to hear. "I am not going to complain but there is something missing from the party. There are no muggles to torture." The two men next to her were spotting wicked grins which Harry supposed was no real surprise. He had heard about the hunts and certain forms of entertainments the death eaters enjoyed at parties. "Then I saw you dragging around your little friend there and I decided that an introduction would be in order. The funny thing is that I thought I knew of all the pureblood children at Hogwarts, and yet I do not recall seeing you before."

Knowing what to do, Harry tugged his hand free of Draco's. Stepping around his friend Harry now stood so he was slightly in front of the blond. Swiftly Harry bowed before he straightened his back and met her gaze. "My name is Harry James Potter, madam." Harry watched as several heads turned to look in his direction at his words. Many of them were wearing an expression of disgust when they looked at him.

"A squib." Unlike the others Bellatrix started crackling, her wand appearing in her hand as if by magic. To Harry's great regret so had the two males' and he already knew that it was not to come and help him. "And here I thought that this was going to be a long and boring night and then my icky nephew brings me some entertainment."

Draco didn't come to his defence, as Harry had known he wouldn't do. The Malfoy heir ruled his peers. But among adults where he had yet to prove himself there was nothing the blond could do to get him out of this mess.

Harry forced himself to stand still as the woman slowly circled around him. He could feel her eyes wandering over his body, picking him apart without actually touching him or using any kind of magic. "You are a prime proof on why purebloods should not marry other than our own kind. I remember your father. James Potter was a fool who married a mudblood." Harry clenched his hands but otherwise showed no outwardly reaction to her slur about his parents. It was not like he could do anything to defend himself, not with this many witnesses. "Crucio."

Having already seen the curse come Harry sidestepped it, and it hit the spot where he had been standing just seconds before. It was angled not to hit Draco, otherwise Harry was not sure he would have been able to move out of the way.

Bellatrix seemed not to be the only one surprised that he had managed to avoid her attack. By now they seemed to have gathered rather much attention. Perhaps those pureblood parties really were as boring as he had thought they would be if those people let themselves get distracted by so little.

"Pure luck. You are not going to escape this easily." The witch said while raising her wand. Harry felt his body tense in aspersion. At least she had not figured out why he had managed to duck her curse. He could live with having some dumb luck if that meant he would be able to keep his secret.

"Cru-"

"Bellatrix, what is going on here?" Harry looked in the direction of the voice, hoping that he would be warned if the witch tried to do anything. A new trio had arrived and Harry knew that there was much more reason to fear those three than Bellatrix and her family.

To the left was Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father and the head of the Malfoy family. It was rather remarkable to see how similar the two blonds looked. If not for the age difference they could easily have passed for being twins. But the lord Malfoy had had more years to feel home in the power and prestige his family name carried. He was also the one to speak up, since none of his two companions seemed to find the need to speak just yet.

Severus Snape was to the right side. As always the man was dressed in black robes which brought forth his pale parlour. It seemed like not even their lord's birthday could make the man change his way of dressing. He was just as tall as Lucius despite being a few years younger. The long fingers were potions stained and Harry doubted that even a strong Scourgify would help with that. Harry ducked his head instinctively when he met Severus' gaze. From the look in the man's black eyes Harry knew that he was on his own in the matter.

It was the one in the middle, a little behind the two others, which Harry found his gaze wandering to. Even if he had not seen the man' face appear in the newspaper several times, there was only one human in the Wizarding world with red eyes.

Despite being well over seventy the dark lord looked around his late twenties. Even though being a wizard meant you aged slower than a muggle the man's slow aging was famous. The rumours went from being a vampire hybrid to Slytherin having made some ritual involving a demon and a virgin sacrifice.

Harry was not sure what he was supposed to believe but he knew that he had went from the ashes and directly into the fire.

The ones surrounding lowered their heads for the dark lord. Harry swept down in a bow, deeper than the one he had given Draco in mock. He felt several gazes on him and shifted his weight from one foot to another when he stood up again. "My lord, it's just that-"

"Do you really find a party in my honour so boring, Bellatrix?" Voldemort cut in, his deep voice sending shivers down Harry's spine and making the youth frown in confusion. In a situation like this he could understand it if the shivers had originated from fear, however that didn't seem to be the case. But right now he did not have the time to analyse this. The only way Harry could see this turn worse was if a dementor came into the room.

The lady Lestrange kneelt and for once she didn't seem arrogant. More like a puppy which was eager to see what its master would do. "Of course not my lord." She said with a sugar coated voice and looked up at the man through her eyelashes. "Nothing related to you would ever be considered boring. It is just that I found someone who I believed that you would find interesting in meeting."

Harry's body returned to its tense state when the attention was turned back on him. The heavy weight of Severus' gaze and the red eyes resting on him made him feel like a deer caught in headlight. "I do not recognise you, and yet I recall seeing you once or twice around this place. But from the way you are dressed I would say that you are not a student at the school. But are you not too young to attend such an occupation?" Voldemort mused aloud. At the mention of his small build Harry bit back a sharp retort. He reminded himself that it would do him nothing good to attack the unofficial ruler of the Wizarding world.

"My name is Harry Potter, no I am not a student, but I am sixteen years old. Though I am underage it's not why I do not attend those gatherings, sir." Harry added the polite address slightly belated as he remembered who it was he was talking to.

He heard someone snicker, and it would not surprise him if it was Bellatrix. She looked like someone who would feel joy in others' suffering.

Voldemort sensed the tense atmosphere and a smirk painted his face. "Yes, you are the squib child which Severus suddenly showed up with and decided to make his assistant. Tell me Harry, what do you think of living in a magical school when you are unable to perform magic?"

When Harry failed to produce an answer Voldemort continued as if he had not been expecting one at all. He walked forward and only stopped when he was right in front of Harry. Harry had to tilt his head back to be able to look at the man's face, not liking the closeness between them."Perhaps you would rather spend your time elsewhere. I have heard that the dragon tamers in Romania use squibs to clean out the boxes where the sick dragons have been."

Finally finding his voice Harry managed to press the words through his clenched teeth. "No thank you. I am very happy to stay where I am." A headache was approving and he knew that if he kept pushing it aside for long there would be hell to suffer once he got a chance to be on his own. "I might not be able to use magic, but that is not the same as saying that I do not like seeing what others learn." It gave him a link to the world he could have been a part of if not because he had been born without magic.

"This boy is an excellent example on why our kind should not be joined with muggles and others who are unworthy. Despite their different political views the Potters were still powerful and a well known family. But the later generation betrayed our beliefs. The result of this betrayal stands here in front of me." Harry felt the blood rush to his cheeks at the man's words. Yet he managed to keep his tongue. He had a feeling that he would have a hard time with avoiding Voldemort's Crucio if he angered the man. It was not something he wanted to put to a test.

"I am sure that Mr. Potter, like everyone else of his kind, is aware that squibs are not allowed to attend a pureblood party." Lord Malfoy drawled, moving his walking stick so the silver head reflected the light into his eyes.

It gave Harry the excuse he needed to take a step back so that he no longer was standing so close to the dark lord.

Harry let his tongue run over his lips, his mind running wild while trying to come up with something. "I am sure that Mr. Potter is also well aware of what punishment follows when a squib goes against the rules." Lord Malfoy said, speaking as though he was merely reminding the others of what they all knew.

"That is enough Lucius. After all I decided those rules myself and I, unlike certain others, remember them well." The dark lord said, never taking his eyes of Harry.

Harry found himself glancing at Draco. When the three new ones had arrived Draco had stepped aside. The blond was standing among his friends, not meeting Harry's gaze and making no sign of coming to his help.

It hurt to see it. But Harry also knew that it could not be risked. Draco was the son of the dark lord's right hand man. He could not risk being seen taking the side of a squib, especially not against the ruler of their country.

But it didn't mean that his actions hurt any less.

"I apologise many times, sir. It was just that I had heard that there would be firework and I had hoped to see it. My plan was just to find a window to look at it, but all the usual ways were blocked and suddenly I found myself here." The half lie fell smoothly over his lip, not the first one he had made in his life. And Harry knew that it would not be the last.

That is if the dark lord did not decide to kill him as a punishment.

At that though Harry felt the beat of his heart speed up. It felt like his heart was trying to work its way out through his chest, not a feeling he liked, mind you.

"Ickly little squib is feeling lonely? Please my lord, let me have him, I promise I will teach him never to disturb you again." Bellatrix cooed, twirling her wand between her fingers.

"No Bellatrix." Voldemort said, dismissing the witch, who looked positively crestfallen. Harry was split. On one hand it seemed like he did not risk being tortured by the witch. Everyone knew that she liked getting creative with curses ones in a while and Harry felt no need to see how far she would be able to take it.

On the other hand he had no idea what was planned for him.

"Since it is my birthday, I am feeling generously. I will allow you to watch the firework together with us and you will not be punished though you have gone against the law." Harry was about to let out a breath of relief when Voldemort continued speaking. "However, I believe that since you are attending my birthday party, it means that you owe me a gift."

Harry stood as frozen, trying to think of something. His possessions were all back in Severus' chamber and those few he had was not something which he was willing to part with. Before Harry could manage an answer Voldemort seemingly decided to relieve him. "Do not worry about it. But at some time I will require something of you and you will give it to me." Knowing that there was no way out of it Harry bowed his head in submission. He didn't dare to think what the dark lord could want from him but decided to focus on the point that he had managed to get out of this without punishment.

"My lord, I believe that it is time for the firework." Severus finally spoke, looking directly at Harry meanwhile. Harry kept his head bowed and refused to meet the man's eyes.

"Very well." Voldemort nodded. "We will head outside and enjoy the show." The tenseness returned to Harry's body when the man looked directly at him. "Follow with me, Mr. Potter." For some reason there was no malice in the man's voice, though it still was colder than it was when speaking to the magic users around him.

Together with the crowd Harry walked outside. He kept in the back of the group, not wanting to gather more attention than he had already had gotten this night. Harry realised that Draco was trying to catch his gaze, but he refused to look in the blond's direction. Draco's pureblood friends would keep the blond occupied for the rest of the party which meant that Harry would not have to worry about confronting him for now.

They stopped at the stairs to Hogwarts which allowed them a great view over the Black Lake, behind it was the Forbidden Forest where Harry had ventured into through many years.

A sharp sound made Harry return his attention to the clear and dark sky above them. A myriad of colours, mostly silver and green lit of the sky. Harry's eyes grew big as he watched the magical firework. Creatures hunted each other and exploded into a mess of light and colours when they collided. It was a breathtaking sight and certainly something worthy of the dark lord's birthday.

Harry jumped in surprise when a hand clamped around his arm and he had a free hand raised to attack before his mind registered who was touching him. Harry looked up at Severus and gave the man a slight smile. The Potions master looked everything but impressed and with a jerk of his head the man made his intention clear.

As soundless ghosts the two males made their ways up the stairs and back into the castle. Their whole walk to Severus' chambers went in silence. Severus was walking ahead of him but Harry had no doubt that if he tried to run the man would notice it before he even managed to take a step in another direction.

Severus's chamber could be found in the dungeon, close to the Potions laboratory. They entered through the portrait of a dark haired, female vampire, who was mostly naked. It was not exactly that kind of portrait anyone would expect Severus to choose to guard his chambers and therefore it made it just right for the job.

Still not speaking Severus led the way into the living room. The whole place was done in brown and cream, making it look comfortable. Harry knew that most people believed that Severus would be living with dried blood and shackles on the walls and with no fireplace to keep the rooms warm no matter what the time was.

Where they got those ideas from Harry could only wonder about.

"Sit." Harry completed the order without a second thought and sat down on the sofa. Not knowing what else to do with his hands Harry simple folded them in his lap. He knew that when Severus spoke like this it was best to just do as he was told.

Seeing that his charge was not going anywhere Severus took a seat in an armchair which was placed opposite to the sofa Harry sat in. For a long while the Potions master said nothing, but was watching Harry with unblinking black eyes. "May I enquire what the whole purpose with this was? I recall that you came to me today and asked me to make sure that there was no way you would be free tonight, and yet you showed up practically in front of the dark lord. You could have been killed or tortured, and then I would have had to use a dunderhead to prepare those ingredients!"

Harry bit back a wince. It was at least nice to know that Severus had his priorities in order. "Draco decided that it would be a good idea to drag of with me. And after first he has decided on something it is as good as impossible to make him listen to what you say." Harry said, running a hand through his hair and thus messing up the ponytail it had previously been in. Anger was evident in his voice. It would take a good while before he forgave the blond for what he had done.

However it seemed like Severus was not done with ranting at him. "What is the purpose with trying to protect you if you head straight into danger as soon as I take my eyes off of you?"

Tired and feeling his headache grow in intense Harry rubbed his temple. "Sorry. It's just so frustrating. I never know if my actions lead to the things I see or if some outside force fulfils it. If Draco hadn't sought me out tonight, it could all have been avoided."

A rustle made Harry drag his eyes from his lap and back to Severus. He let his hands fall down and offered the man a tired smile though it did little to calm Severus. "The plan would have been perfect if not for my foolish godson's involvement. Few people have access to my laboratories but Draco is the only one who would try and drag you somewhere right under the dark lord's nose." Severus said slowly as he got a faraway look in his eyes. Undoubtedly the man was planning how to talk his godson out of acting like a Gryffindor.

Harry refrained from voicing his current thoughts about Draco. He was already planning several ways to how he could avoid the blond over the next few days. Though it had not been said aloud Harry knew what Severus meant. He had been extremely lucky when he had faced Bellatrix tonight. No one short of the dark lord could stop her from doing as she wanted. Without involvement Harry would probably still be at the party, being tortured to the border of madness.

"I know, I know. But I only knew that I would face Lestange and later there would be firework. It is a little hard to plan anything when I didn't know more." Harry clenched his eyes shut, trying to keep the growing pain at bay. "Somehow when it involves myself those freaking visions make no sense."

"Language."

The youth managed to open an eye enough to look at the Potions master. "English, do you not recognise your own mother tongue?" He asked through clenched teeth.

Severus stood and walked over to Harry where he pried the boy's eyes open. "Your pupils are expended. How long have you been holding back?" The man asked, letting go of his face before helping him to stand. The boy gave up all attempts to keep standing on his own and leaned against Severus' chest. Severus held him close, not giving him a chance to fall as they walked.

"I think that it started around the time Bellatrix found us. I was more focussed on trying to get out of it alive instead of thinking too much of it." Harry mumbled as they stepped into his room. With a flick of Severus' wand the small room was lit up.

The room was to the r small side, with one window and a stone floor. A small bed occupied the left hand corner farthest from the door with a nightstand next him. There was a dresser in the opposite corner, next to it a small desk with a shelf of books over it. Having been in the room many times before Severus did not even pause as he led Harry over to the bed.

"Imbecile brat. One would think that after so long under my tutelage you would at least have learned enough to take care of yourself." Despite the harsh words Harry grinned at the man while he was being helped down onto the bed.

"You must be going soft, Severus. You forgot to treat me with having to scrub cauldrons for the whole year." Harry mumbled, closing his eyes. As he sank into darkness he felt his robes being changed into what he assumed were nightclothes, done by magic.

**)00(**

He was standing in the middle of a fight, from the looks of it, it was an ambush. The trees made it hard to see where their attackers were hiding. Harry ducked a curse and watched as it hit one of the death eaters. The man fell to the ground as soon as the green beam hit him.

Slowly Harry turned around. He knew that he needed to get as much information as possible so he could deliver it to Severus later on. They were in a forest which Harry did not recognise. From the lack of anything magical, not including the ongoing fight, Harry concluded that they were somewhere muggle. With him were five death eaters, not counting the one who had already fallen. From their plain white masks Harry would say that it were new members, or simply people who had not managed to move up in the ranks.

Turning more Harry felt like he had been hit by a lightning bolt as his eyes fell on the death eater closets to him. Despite the mask and the anonymous black robe Harry only knew of two persons who had that kind of blond hair. Draco had been marked last summer by the dark lord. It wasn't just because of his father's position that the blond had gotten that privilege. The blond was the best dueller among his peers and those older than him.

Currently the blond was dancing out of the curses' way and sending his own back in the direction the others had originated from. Not yet sure of the reason why he was there Harry decided to do the only thing he could – wait.

The answer came not long after that. Horror-struck Harry watched as a green beam came in from the left, heading directly at the Malfoy heir who had not noticed that anything was wrong. Harry stood frozen and watched as the curse stuck Draco in the side. The sounds from the ongoing fighting seemed to disappear as Harry saw Draco fall. The green eyes followed his friend's fall until the body hit the hard ground.

Draco was dead at once.

**)00(**

Harry sat up in the bed with a scream trying to fight its way over his lips. His eyes flickered around until it dawned on him that he was back in his own bedroom and no longer in the forest with all the dead bodies. The light from an enchanted window over his bed told Harry that he had slept.

Cursing under his breath Harry pushed the cover aside and got out of the bed. The headache was gone but Harry felt unsteady on his feet. Determined Harry decided to ignore the slight discomfort. He had far more important matters to take care of.

He found Severus in the living room. The Potions master was seated in the chair he had occupied last night, reading a Potions journal. At Harry's appearance the man took a glance over him before placing the book aside. "Was it as bad as last time?" He asked.

Nodding Harry steadied himself against the wall, keeping an eye on Severus. "Where is Draco?" He finally asked.

Severus' eyes narrowed, quickly catching up on what he was hinting on. "The dark lord assigned him a mission together with another recruit and four from the lower circle. They are supposed to leave soon."

At Severus' words Harry felt himself pale. Ignoring the Potions master's yells Harry dashed out of the quarter, letting the portrait fall in place with a loud smack behind him.

Harry was forced to follow the same part out of the lower level of the castle as he and Draco had walked last night. Though Hogwarts was filled with an unnumbered amount of secret passages, most of the wards from the party were still up. He couldn't risk using one of the passages since the other end might be blocked and Harry was not willing to waste time with having to go back and find another way.

His bare feet hit against the cold stone floor as Harry ran through the castle. Having wasted no time changing he was still dressed in the nightclothes he had fallen asleep in. His hair was hanging loose and flopping around to his movements. He suspected that people ere s too amused by his lack of proper dress to bother stopping him.

Hogwarts was surrounded by wards which came from the founders' time and some had been added through the centuries. Some of those made sure that apparition was impossible to do as long as you were inside the wards. However, when he had taken over, Voldemort had made it so his followers could use portkeys inside the wards, as long as they were not inside the school itself. It made it easier to send his troops away without alerting anyone about it.

To avoid accidents a special area had been marked for those who wished to portkey and that was where he was heading for.

Passing through the castle's door Harry easily located Draco's group. The six death eaters were already standing in a circle and with what he assumed was the portkey in between them. Not wasting any breath on trying to yell at them Harry sprinted forward, quickly covering the yards between them.

The death eaters looked up when they saw him come closer, Harry saw their confusion and slight humour as he made his way over to them.

Reaching the group Harry swiftly grabbed the edge of Draco's sleeve, ignoring the scowl Draco probably was giving him from behind the mask. "You can't go." Harry managed to get out between his gasps for air. Perhaps he had been spending a little too much time down in the dungeon lately.

"Malfoy, did you forget to say goodbye to your little mistress before leaving for the mission?" Harry coloured brightly. He didn't recognise the man right away but it didn't make the insult less annoying.

Before Harry could make a retort to the insult or tell them what was going on he felt a tug in his body and green eyes widened. It seemed like he had run out of time.

His feet hit hard ground and Harry stumbled backwards, forced to let go of Draco's robe as his legs gave out under him. Looking around Harry let out a long string of swear words. They were in a forest and if he was not mistaken then they had portkeyed directly to the place he had seen in his vision. "Potter, what are you doing here?" Draco asked, making no move to help him so Harry had to get on his feet on his own.

Dusting his hands clean in his pants Harry kept glancing around. "I might be mad at you, but it doesn't mean that I want to see you end up dead." By the narrowing of the grey eyes Harry knew that the blond was getting angry.

"Just because Severus has taken you in, it doesn't mean that you can commend people around as you want. Don't forget that you are just a squib." Harry bristled at Draco hissed words as the blond pushed him away.

Regaining his balance Harry glared at Draco. He wanted to pounce the idiot and perhaps get a few good hits in. "It doesn't matter what you believe, Malfoy!" The blond seemed slightly taken aback by Harry's anger, but he refused to calm down. "I tried to warn you, now we have to leave before they come."

"What are you talking about squib." Harry bared his canines at the man he recognised as Walden Macnair, one of Voldemort's older followers and probably also the one who was leading the mission.

"That is what I am trying to tell you. Someone is going to attack us. Activate that dammed portkey and get us away from here before it's too late." Harry was cut off when Macnair grabbed his cuff and lifted him so his feet were no longer touching the ground. Draco stood a little to the side and looked split between helping and just watching. Harry was starting to wonder if it would have been better if he had just decided to not act on the vision. But no, he wasn't angry enough to want the blond idiot dead.

"How did you come to such a knowledge squib? You better not be joking or it will be costly for you."

Macnair let go of him and Harry stumbled a few steps back with a huff. "If I wanted to joke about something, I wouldn't have taken it so far. Believe me, I have no wish about being here, so if you could just activate that twice dammed portkey and take us back, everything will be fine. Then you can come back later to do whatever you have been ordered to."

The way Macnair's eyes narrowed behind the mask made Harry's hackles rose. "If you do not know what this mission is about, then how can you be so sure that we are in danger? How can I know that you did not follow us to join those rebels?" The words made Harry's inside freeze though he outwardly showed no reaction.

"Morgana's tits. Can't you people-" Whatever Harry had planned on saying was cut off when a purple beam flew past them and hit one of the death eaters. The man let out a strangled yell and clutched his arm, where the shoulder seemed to have dislocated.

Harry had tried that enough times to know that it was not a pain free experience.

Almost immediately the death eaters fell into formation.

Harry found himself pushed behind Draco who was firing curses in the general direction of where the first attack had come from. The air was soon filled with colourful lights. Though it was a pretty show Harry didn't doubt that most of the spells were fired with deadly intention.

The tall trees and the close shrubbery hid their attackers effectively. Harry's eyes flickered around, but he was unable to spot anyone. Perhaps they used illusion spells to keep themselves hidden. Silencing charms would be pretty important with the current level of noise. A troll could wander past them and Harry doubted that any of them would hear it.

As in his vision Harry ducked and let a green curse fly over his head. Already knowing that it would have stuck someone Harry was unable to stop himself from turning around and check. The death eater had fallen and the mask had been pushed off, leaving Harry to stare at Macnair's lifeless face.

He would have done well in listening to Harry's warning.

His heart seemed to beat impossible fast as Harry turned his back to the fallen death eater. The blond was moving around constantly, not letting the snow hinder his movements. And no matter how much he moved Draco managed to block those spells which would otherwise have passed him and possible hit Harry in his place.

When Harry saw the green curse come in from left and head straight for Draco, his body reacted instinctively. With long strides he crossed the snow covered ground between them.

Their collusion was not gentle and Harry had enough speed behind him to actually knock Draco off of his feet. As they fell Harry wrapped his arms around Draco's torso, clutching the blond close to him.

They hit the ground with Draco taking the blunt of the fall and Harry lying on top of him, not moving. As Harry lay on top of Draco, listening to the heartbeat through the clothes he became aware of how quiet it had become around them.

Lifting his head enough to look around Harry's eyes widened and he hissed softly under his breath. Bare the dead body not so far away from them all the death eaters were gone, leaving Draco and him behind. They would rather face the dark lord's wrath than staying and fight for the mission.

Draco pushed him away, sending Harry tumbling in the snow. "Incarcerous." Robes flew out from one of their attacker's wand and wrapped themselves securely around the two boys' wrists and ankles.

Harry tested the bonds and found that they were firm and left him with little space to move. He didn't contain his grimace when he pulled against the ropes and felt them cut into his skin. Harry laid still, his body tense and eyes wide opened while he waited to see what would happen. From the looks of it Draco was not much better of.

Four people emerged from behind the surrounding trees. Harry felt his body tense as he looked at them.

One of them was a broad shouldered, tall and black wizard. He was bald and when he came closer Harry could see that he wore a single gold hoop earring. "Check them for wands and weapons." He had a deep and slow voice, and if their circumstances had been different Harry could probably have found it reassuring.

A young woman stepped forth and started shifting through Draco's robe. Why she didn't just use accio Harry could not figure out. He noted that when she moved over to him after having found Draco's wand there was a bouncing in her step. Her eyes were dark and seemed to twinkle, her face was pale and heart shaped and her short spiky hair was purple. Not something Harry would have expected a rebel to have.

After searching through his every pocket the woman turned back to the group and Harry watched in bemusement how her hair turned from purple to bright pink which almost hurt his eyes. "Kingsley, he doesn't have a wand on him."

"Harry has no reason to have a wand, he's a squib." Harry wanted to kick Draco when the blond opened his mouth. He now felt Kingsley Shacklebolt's attention on him and the man stepped over and crouched down in front of Harry.

Even Draco was silent, seemingly having sensed that something was going on. Harry sent the blond a last glare before he shifted his gaze to the man in front of him. "It couldn't be, could it?"

When the man reached out to touch him Harry reacted fast. Despite being bound he managed to move enough forward to let his teeth sink into the man's hand. The taste of blood filled his mouth, making him wince but dig his teeth deeper into the hand.

Hands grabbed his jaw and wrenched his mouth open, so the hand could be freed. The air was kicked out of his lungs when a boot connected to his ribs. Harry tried to blink the tears away which welled up because of the pain.

Between huffs of breath Harry managed to grin. "Beware..I Bite." He spat in attempt to free his mouth from the taste of blood and watched the snow which now had red spots. Shacklebolt stood clutching his bleeding hand, no longer looking as friendly as he had done just moments before.

"We are taking them with us to the camp."

As they were forced onto their feet, which had been freed from ropes, Harry had the feeling that they had just jumped from the ashes and directly into the fire, again. Just like with the situation with Bellatrix.

**So, options? **

**Next: Harry meet an old face. **


	2. Chapter 2

**What a great welcome back, if I actually had a heart, it would be beating for your people.**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**I forgot to say this, but the pairing will be HP/LV. Now you have been warned.**

**Beta: angelhitomie**

Not a word was exchanged as they walked. Their legs had been freed so that they could walk but their hands were still bound behind their backs, so tight that Harry felt like the blood circulation had been cut off. Shacklebolt had taken the lead. The two other wizards were guarding Harry and Draco's sides and somewhere behind them Harry could hear the Metamorpmagus stumbling around.

By the time they reached the camp Harry was cold to the bone and he had lost the feeling in his hands and mostly also his feet. None of them seemed inclined to cast a warming charm on him. Perhaps they saw it as a fitting punishment for the bite.

Even while his mind was running wild trying to figure out a way to get out of here, he felt Draco's gaze on him several times. Since revealing Harry's name and non-magical status to their attackers Draco had been quite. Glancing at the blond Harry could see hidden confusion in the grey eyes.

Stumbling over his own feet Harry gritted his teeth and scowled. All this could have been avoided if he had stayed and told Severus about what he had seen. However, chances were that Draco would have been dead before the Potions master would have been able to come to his godson's rescue.

At least Draco was alive instead of lying in the cold snow where the forest's predators could freely feed of him.

A small group of tents suddenly appeared in front of them. Harry blinked in surprise before realising that wards probably had been placed around the place to keep it hidden when someone passed.

Harry did not have much of a chance to look, as he and Draco were led over to one of the two bigger tents. From the outside the tents did not look like much. They were light brown coloured and looked like even the smallest wind could knock them over.

Shacklebolt and the Metamorpmagus disappeared into one of the tents. Harry and Draco were pushed into another one where they were forced to kneel on the hard floor and then they were left alone.

Shocked by their dismissing actions Harry shifted into a slightly more comfortable position. With his legs free he was able to sit so he was not putting his weight on them. He grimaced when a painful pinching started all over his frozen body. It felt like a million knives were digging into his flesh, twisting around and then they were slowly pulled out, only for the process to be repeated right away. He hissed, clenching his teeth to avoid any loud noises while he had to stop himself from moving around.

The tent was far bigger on its inside than it had looked to be from outside, such as the custom was in the Wizarding world. It seemed to have only one room, the one they were in. From the looks of it, there had been no use of the tent before they had been pushed inside. Perhaps it had been brought along for the purpose that they might find prisoners, or perhaps it had just been used as storage.

There was one exit, no windows and they were sitting on a hard floor made of wood. It didn't give him many ideas about how they were supposed to get out of this situation. Especially when Draco's wand had been confiscated and Harry himself was unable to do magic of any kind.

"What are you doing?" At Draco's question Harry stopped moving. Until now he had forgotten that the other teen was right next to him in the otherwise empty tent.

"Trying to get free." He gestured with his head towards the ropes which kept his hands bound behind his back.

Already before Draco opened his mouth, Harry could feel the blond looking at him. "You are aware, that the ropes are conjured with magic. Thus they cannot be undone without a wand, which I am currently lacking thanks to those barbarians who have no idea about how one is supposed to treat their guests."

Harry let a small smile grace his lips. Trust a Malfoy to find something as insane to complain about at the manners of their captors.

He wondered if something was wrong with him since he did not really find himself surprised by the way Draco acted. "Believe me, I am well aware of our situation. But it doesn't mean that I can't try. I could be lucky and they have made a mistake in the incarnation and thus weakened the bounds or something." He whispered back to Draco as his teeth clapped from the cold.

They fell into a short silence before Draco felt the need to speak. "I don't understand those people." Harry merely raised a brow, waiting for the blond to continue. Years in Draco's company had taught him that his friend liked to be dramatic. When he didn't ask as Draco wanted him to, the blond huffed but continued nonetheless.

"They are rebels. They fight for the rights of muggles, muggleborns and whatever else they think are being treated unfairly under the dark lord's rule. By all means they should have let you go when they heard that you are a squib. There is no reason that you should be hold captured in here with me." As Draco spoke Harry started to feel gradually more uncomfortable. He understood that Draco only meant the best with what he had done. And perhaps if he had not mentioned his name the plan might have worked. As it was there was nothing Harry doubted that he could do to change their current situation.

Further conversation was cut off when someone entered the tent they were in. Harry bowed his head, keeping his gaze focussed on a spot near his knees. "Has You Know Who really sunk so low that he has started to send children of to do his dirty work for him?" The growling voice made Harry tense. Of all the people he could possibly encounter on an already bad day it just had to be him.

"Since you whelps are still wet behind your ears I will do you a favour and introduce myself. The name is Alastor Moody, though you might know me as Mad Eye Moody." Draco sucked in a harsh breath and Harry understood his friend's reaction only too well.

Moody was known as the Order's information gatherer when the prisoners were less than inclined to spill the beans. In other words, he was the one who was sent when someone needed to be tortured.

The man stepped closer and Harry could almost feel how the vivid, electric blue magical eye was looking into their very soul. "What a pitiful bunch you are. A Malfoy brat. You look just like your father and believe me when I say that it is not something to be proud of." The gruff voice said.

Draco was not late to react to the insult. "Take that back! My father is the dark lord's right hand man and I strive to be just like him." The sound of flesh hitting flesh rung through the tent and made Harry wince. At the same time Draco let out a sting of curse words Harry had not been aware that the blond knew.

Severus really needed to watch what he said when he was around other people.

The small slimmer of humour disappeared when two boots appeared in his range of sight. "But you on the other hand." When Harry failed to react at the voice a hand fisted in his hair and tilted his head backwards, forcing him to look up.

Harry was not sure what he had expected. Strangely enough Moody had not changed much since the last time Harry had last seen him, though years had passed in the mean time. Moody's face, which looked like it was roughly carved from wood, had gained a few more scars and a chunk of his nose was still missing. The grizzled hair had gotten more grey in it, a proof that time had not left the man unchanged.

"You have changed a great deal Harry Potter. You should be proud of looking so much like your father, though a great deal of your mother is also reflected in you." He flinched as if he had been hit when Moody let go of his hair.

Rolling his neck to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling he had gotten from having it forced into a different position Harry glared at the wizard. "Believe me, if I had a choice I would look nothing like any of them. Unfortunately I have not found anything which can do such a thing at this state of life." The force from the hit made Harry fall backwards so he now lay on his back. He blinked a few times, refusing to let the tears fall.

"Leave him alone! If you are going to hit someone then do it to someone who has a chance of defending themselves. Of course, who could expect anything better from a mudblood loving lunatic? Just give me my wand back and I'll show you how a proper wizard is supposed to fight." Draco exclaimed, dragging the attention from Harry and over to him.

"Silencio." Though Draco's lips kept moving not another sound passed over them. Satisfied with this Moody turned his attention back to the brunet. "Words that you have been found have already been sent to Albus. He should get them by tomorrow." Moody's wand stayed on Draco while the man talked.

It was a clear warning that any attempt to do what he had done to Shacklebolt would lead to Draco paying the price for Harry's foolishness.

Therefore Harry kept still as Moody took forth a vial from the depth of one of his pockets. "But even though Albus will only learn of the news tomorrow I fail to see why we cannot just take advantage of our current situation and also make sure that you are unable to flee." Inside the vial was a thick and brown potion. Harry felt dread fill his stomach as the vial was held tauntingly in front of his face, just out of reach.

Uncorking the vial Moody sniffed the substance. "It is one of the few potions which we managed to save after your little escape. I have heard that some potions grow more potent through the years. Let us see if it is also the case with this one." Harry tried to roll away but Moody was faster and placed a knee on his chest, pinning him to the spot. With his free hand Moody pried Harry already bruised jaw apart. As soon as his mouth was open enough the wizard emptied the context down in his mouth.

Harry spluttered as his mouth was suddenly filled with the thick liquor and he attempted to jerk his head free so he could get rid of the bad tasting potion. However Moody was faster.

The man placed a hand over Harry nose and mouth, cutting off his air supply. Harry trashed under Moody's hold, hoping to get free so he could spit out the potion. Despite his age and handicap Moody had almost no problems with keeping Harry down.

The man threw the vial away and placed his other hand on Harry's neck. The pressure made Harry stop his trashing. If he moved the wrong way, Moody could easily snap his neck. While Harry did not believe that the man would actually do it, he had heard about the so called accidents which happened whenever Moody was alone with an unwilling prisoner.

The need for air quickly grew and Harry found his body working against his will. A few swallows and Harry felt the the thick potion slowly slide down his throat, leaving a horrible aftertaste.

Harry gagged when Moody let go of him shortly after. As soon as the man moved away Harry turned onto his side, retching in hope of getting the potion out of his stomach. His stomach was protesting heavily about the vile thing it had been subjected to.

Harry curled into a ball the best he could with his hands behind his back, coughing and retching. This was worse than when he had bitten Shaklebolt. At least none of the blood had ended in his stomach then.

His view had already started narrowing in as Harry looked over at Draco. The blond was being held by the Metamorpmaguc, explaining why he had not come to Harry's help when Moody had force fed him the potion.

"Sweet dream, Potter." Moody said, before leaving the tent, letting the flap fall close behind them.

Struggling against the still stronger hold of the potion Harry's gaze flickered around. He was well aware of the way both Draco and the woman were watching him but found it hard to focus on any of them.

Tears welled up in his eyes though Harry was unsure if any sounds passed over his lips or not.

Unlike when the visions came to him Harry did not have the slightest illusion of control. He felt himself plunging into darkness before scenes started playing in front of his eyes, far away from where his body currently lay.

Like a ghost he floated above ever changing scenes, many of them moving past him with such a speed that Harry was left wondering if it was possible to feel nausea when he was not even awake.

Currently Harry was on a Muggle street he recognised only too well. Privet Drive was a suburban street in Little Whinging. The neighbourhood consisted of boring boxy houses. They were nearly exact replications of each other, row upon row of exclusive houses for exclusive people. Though the cars had been changed to newer and smarter models and he didn't think that number eight had had white roses the last time he had been there.

He followed the tug, passing through the closed door to Privet Drive 4, without any troubles. The smell of cleaning supplies made Harry grimace, that was one among many other things which he did not miss about this place. The house, like any other one at this street was a two floor.

Inside the house was even neater than the perfectly made garden. The pictures of the large, pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bonnets were gone. Now the photographs showed a large blond in different scenarios.

He passed the cupboard under the stairs without a second glance and the kitchen too. Harry was not surprised to see than the room was filled with the newest things in technology. After all, being married to a director in Grunnings the woman had to show off her money when people came on visits. Harry shook his head and continued his way up the stairs.

He passed his aunt and uncle's bedroom as well as the bathroom before he floated into what he remembered to be Dudley's room.

It had changed a great deal and yet again not. As long as Harry could recall Dudley's room had always been filled with junk and other useless mess. While it had stayed that way the baby toys had been changed to things Harry had a hard time to view his cousin use. After all Dudley had never been a sporty person, unless it involved hunting some poor kid down and then beat the lad up. So Harry could hardly see what the muggle wanted with a punching bag.

Harry's attention turned from the inventory and to the only person in the room. Since he had last seen his cousin Dudley had grown to the seize of a baby killer whale. The blond boy was sitting on his bed, which looked ready to give out under him any second.

Getting closer Harry was surprised to see Dudley had some white powder in his hand. As he watched Dudley closed one nostril before leaning down and sniffing hard. "Bloody hell. I wish Aunt Petunia could see this. Her precious little angel, taking drugs. Surely they would find some way to blame my bad influence on this."

Feeling a harder tug Harry knew he would move on to the next vision. However before the scenery could change a sharp pain erupted from his shoulder and spread like a fire from there.

Harry woke up with a start, pain in his head flaring as he opened his eyes, eliciting a small moan to escape his lips as his body became aware of its surroundings.

Unceremoniously Harry rolled onto to his side and emptied his stomach of its meagre content. Finishing Harry rolled back onto his back, groaning as new waves of pain came from his shoulder.

Now awake, he gritted his teeth against the pain and tried to think back through the myriad visions that he had encountered.

He carefully eased himself upright and nearly staggered as his headache blossomed even more fiercely in his temples.

"Bloody hell," he murmured to himself. He didn't dare to close his eyes, fearing that he would be dragged back into the world of visions.

In the dim light Harry was able to see Draco's hair shine. The blond was pale, even more than he normally was. "You're awake Harry?" Draco asked, moving closer until they were nearly touching.

"No, I'm merely sitting and talking while being unconscious." He bit, regretting his words at Draco's hurt look. "Sorry that I got you dragged into this mess." Harry moved his legs, avoiding the kick Draco had aimed at him. The movement however made him retch, though there was nothing more to come up.

Leaning against Draco's body for support Harry became aware of how badly his body was shaking. While he no longer felt cold from his walk outside, his bones were as if they were made of ice and sweat was running down his back, making the nightshirt stick to his skin.

"Scarhead, don't act like a Gryffindor and think that you are the center of this world. We wouldn't be in this situation if the others had not decided to act like bloody cowards and abandon us. When my father hears of this-"

"You do realise that we have to get out of here if you want to tell your father." Harry groaned, and let his head rest against Draco's shoulder. One adverse he hated about the potion was that it made his strength waver.

"What did that potion do to you? I have never seen anything like that. One would think that Severus would at least have mentioned it, or someone when the dark lord decided to torture someone." A shiver ran down Harry's spine at Draco's words.

Spitting to clear the taste of vomit from his mouth Harry moved around until he was behind Draco. "Don't worry. It's not something they'll feed you. And even if they did I doubt that it would have much of an effect. Your blood is just not quite right." He said, unable to stop the small jab.

It was only yesterday or perhaps they day before since he had no idea of what the clock was, that Draco had watched him being humiliated because of Harry's lack of blood purity. "Did they really see me as such a small threat that they did not even find it necessary to keep me bound?" It definitely didn't seem like something he could see Moody do. The man was paranoid as hell.

With one hand Harry started feeling up the rope binding Draco's hands. From the tightness of the knot Harry knew that Draco had attempted to free himself while Harry had been under the influence of the potion. "They sat the Metomorpmagus to guard us. My guess is that you looked so pitiful that she decided that it would do no harm to let you free of your bounds. But when she left she forgot to read the spell. It might be because she still felt dizzy after her nose had a meeting with the floor."

Tugging at the knot Harry made a small sound of satisfaction as it became undone. "Can you believe it? She made pig noses and then expected me to laugh at her antics." Draco turned around and rubbed his red and probably also sore wrists. "Though I've to admit that she looked hilarious when she went out of here with a bloody nose."

Draco got on his feet and looked down at Harry. "Can you get up on your own?" Despite the harshly spoken words Draco extended a hand which Harry took before he was pulled to stand. The hold proved to be necessary as Harry swayed back and forth. "Whatever that man gave you, it sure as hell is effective. Do you think that we could sneak some of it into some of the parties in the Slytherin common room?"

Wincing Harry leaned heavily against Draco's taller body. "To anyone else it will just taste like horse piss. But how about we first get out of here and then we can search for something you can gift your small friends at those stuck up parties."

The throbbing pain in his shoulder flared up with every step he took with Draco's help. Though trying to be helpful Draco's steps were longer than what Harry was comfortable with. "So, any suggestions to how we get out of here?" Harry found himself asking. There was no way that he would stay willingly here.

Besides, he already had a good idea what would happen, but before that, they needed to get out of the tent.

Draco's low snort brought Harry's gaze back to the blond by his side. "This is a rather ratty edition, nowhere as good as the one I have at home. However I do recognise the producer and no matter how cheap their product is, they made sure that it would be impossible to sneak in and out without using the assigned exists. They called it childproof, a way to make sure that your teenagers could not sneak out when they were at Quidditch matches."

"So through the door it is." Harry said trying to keep his voice cheerful. Draco staggered, stopping himself from falling before he took Harry down with him. Apparently Harry was not the only one affected by not being able to move around for a long while.

They managed to get to the opening without any problems. "How big do you think our chances are that they have just gone to sleep and forgotten all about us?" Though not being able to see it, Harry knew that Draco was rolling his eyes at Harry's question.

Cold air hit them head on when they opened the flap to the tent. Harry breathed in sharply, his eyes darting around. Snow had started falling while they were inside the tent. A fire had been lit, placed between the two tents, and it was the only source of light Harry and Draco had now where they were outside.

Shivering Harry pressed himself closer against Draco's body. "Seems like you were right. It's no wonder that the dark lord has no problems with catching rebels when they are so careless as this."

"Draco, I think that you might have spoken a little too hasty." Harry nearly went cross eyed as he tried to keep looking at the wand levelled at his face.

"Turn around and walk straight back to the tent." Moody growled, the end of his wand glowing brightly. "In there, you, Potter, are going to get another doses of the potion, which should be enough to knock you out until Dumbledore arrives. And we two." Harry felt Draco tense when Moody's wand turned to point at him. "Are going to have a talk. I'm sure that as Lucius Malfoy's son you will have quite the information to tell. And luckily enough there is no one around to intervene."

Mad Eye's words made Harry wonder where the others were. Did they really feel so secure that Moody had just sent the others off? Either the man believed that he could easily take care of two youths, especially when the only wizard did not have his wand. Or else Moody had done it on purpose so that he could get to do his work in peace.

A nagging feeling in the back of his head told Harry that it was not the first choice.

When Moody took a step towards them neither boy moved. Instead Harry suddenly leaned forward and vomited. Since he had no more food in him it was pure stomach acid which came up. To his satisfaction Harry saw that some of it hit Moody's boots. It was not much but at least it made him feel somewhat better with the situation.

"Crucio."

The screams were ripped from his throat and not even Draco's hold on him was enough to keep him standing. Harry hit the snow covered ground with a hard thud, rolling around to get away from the burst of pain though nothing seemed to help.

When what felt like an endless amount of time seemed to have passed the pain finally faded. Harry wanted to curl into a foetus position, to protect his body from more harm. But his wounded shoulder and the lingering pain from the curse paralyzed him and instead Harry tried to focus on keeping his breathing even.

He was faintly aware that his body was shaking as a combined result of the curse and the after effect of the potion. Remembering Moody's words Harry wanted to vomit again. He was not sure he could take another potion this soon after the first one.

A hand fisted a good portion of his hair and Harry was yanked to his feet, the only thing keeping him standing was Moody's hold on him. "It was a very stupid thing to do, Potter."

While speaking Mad Eye shook him like a terrier which had gotten hold on a rat. Harry just hung limply in the hold, not moving as much as a muscle as his eyes stayed at a point over Moody's shoulder and he stared into the darkness surrounding them.

Moody let out a sound of surprise when Harry let his legs give out under him. A grin slowly worked its way to Harry's face and his tired eyes looked up at Moody's, a dark glint in them. "You are going to regret letting your small friends go. On the other hand, it is not like they would have been able to save you if they had been here."

"What are you talking about boy, what did you see?" Instead of answering Harry let out a pained sound. There was no way that he would tell Moody about any of his visions.

Suddenly Moody's eyes rolled backwards, and the man let out a growl. Without further words Mad Eye let go of him and Harry found himself tumbling down in the snow, where he lay unmoving.

With half lid eyes Harry watched, as Moody stunned Draco before turning around, already sending curses of into the darkness which surrounded the small camp.

It didn't take long before similar curses were returned, though none of them were lethal. Their attackers probably wouldn't risk hitting Draco with the Avada Kedavra. Harry would love to see how they would explain how that happened to Lucius Malfoy afterwards.

Before Voldemort took over control, Alastor Moody had been an Auror. Since then the man had joined the rebels, and though years had passed Moody had managed to keep himself in form and ready to fight.

From the darkness several individuals stepped forth, dressed in black robes and the white masks covering their faces. "Draky darling, your dear Aunt has come to bring you home." Bellatrix Lestrange's voice was easily heard as she hurled one curse after another after the ex-auror.

In contrast to the death eaters in the darkness Moody had no thoughts about holding back. The man was clearly trying to drag time out for as long as possible until his comrades would arrive. Or perhaps he planned on taking as many as possible down with him.

Glaring at Moody, who was busy casting spells, Harry crawled over to Draco's frozen body. Grey and bewildered eyes were staring up at the sky when Harry collapsed next to his friend, out of air.

Harry rolled onto his side so he was looking at Draco, his vision narrowed itself in. Reaching out Harry's hand clamped down around the edge of Draco's sleeve. Though he doubted that Draco could see it Harry sent his friend a small smile as he was dragged back into the darkness which would soon turn into new visions.

Around him the sounds of the battle continued.

**So, options?**

**Next: Back at Hogwarts Harry meets Voldemort.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**Beta: angelhitomie**

They knew.

Harry lay in the white room he recognised as a part of the Hospital Wing where he had found himself upon his awakening mere minutes ago. He kept his breathing even and eyelids half lowered in case anyone entered the room so they would not notice he was awake.

He supposed that he should be thankful. He's back at Hogwarts, behind wards where the rebels had no hope of reaching him. His body was healed, though the soreness lingered and his limbs felt somewhat heavy. The potion's effect had ended, leaving Harry with a clear mind, the long chain of visions having been sorted through before he had even awoken fully.

Breathing deeply Harry forced the tears back, ignoring the burning feeling in his eyes.

They knew.

For so many years he had managed to keep it a secret. He had just been a squib, nothing unusual albeit he had been lucky enough to be taken underneath a removed Potions master's wing.

He had been safe.

Harry supposed that it was over now. The Order now knew where he was hiding. They would be looking for him, eager to get him back among their ranks where they'll be able to keep an eye on him and use him for their benefit.

A great sadness filled him when Harry realised that he could no longer stay at Hogwarts. By now Draco had probably delivered his report on what had happened during their short capture. Someone hearing would probably be able to connect the dots and figure out what he was.

And even if that was not the case, Harry was unable to bear any illusions. He was in the Hospital Wing. Someone was sure to have watched him while he had been unconscious. Severus would not be able to watch him all the time and the mediwitch was duty bound to report anything strange to the nearest authority.

Harry supposed that he should consider himself lucky that someone had not been there to demand answers from him the moment he had rejoined the world of the living. It gave him time to do what Harry knew he needed to do.

Lifting himself into a sitting position Harry pushed the cover aside and let his feet touch the floor. It didn't surprise him that no warming charms had been applied to the floor. Madame Pomfrey probably believed that her patients were less likely to wander off without her permission if the floor was cold.

Pushing himself up from the bed Harry stumbled before he gained his balance. "I have to get out of here." Harry stared at the door, biting his lower lip thoughtful. He was dressed in white pyjamas. If he walked out like this he would stand out like a sore thumb among the robe clad students. How was he supposed to make it back to the safety of the dungeon.

Looking around Harry found nothing which could be of help. It was almost as if they had known what he would do once he awoke. To him it merely meant that they had cut off his most convenient escape route.

As he walked over to the big windows, Harry gained a sureness in his steps. Outside everything was covered by a fine layer of snow. The sun was high on the sky with not a single cloud in sight. Most important of all, there was no wind.

Harry unclasped the window and opened it. He let out a breath when no alarm sounded. He had half expected Severus to have done it to stop him from fleeing

Heights had never been a bother to him, which Harry was thankful for as he stood at the window sill. Hogwarts was an age old castle, build of stones. By not even magic could even the stones out, leaving the walls as a perfect climbing practice places.

Glancing at the door Harry noticed that it was still closed and he slowly crawled out of the window and hung down on his arms.

Panic grabbed him when Harry's feet sought for a standpoint and came up with nothing. "Stupid, stupid idea." Harry mumbled to himself, banging his head against the hard wall. A small smile graced his face when Harry managed to place both feet on something which didn't feel like it was about to give out under him as soon as he placed his full weight on it.

Slowly Harry made his way downwards. More times than not he found himself moving sideways while looking for something to hold or stand on while avoiding coming too close to the windows were he knew he would be spotted. Luckily no buildings were on the opposite side, which meant that he at least did not have to worry about that front.

His arms were starting to shake and Harry took longer breaks to catch his breath. Despite the cold sweat had formed on his back and forehead. Harry blinked rapidly to stop the sweat from getting into his eyes and the tip of his tongue stuck out from between his lips.

Currently Harry found himself in a tight spot. He had gotten to a place where there was no stones to hold or step on further along the way and the ones he had used to get to this point simply seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

"Scarhead, what are you doing?" Harry's head whipped around and for a moment Harry forget where he was as his body turned so he could see Draco. Surprise coloured Draco's face as Harry started to fall. Instinctively Harry pushed against the wall with his feet and latched his arms around the closest thing to hold on, which proved to be Draco's broom.

Gaining control over his breathing Harry looked up at the blond and grinned. "Fancy meeting you here Draco, do you mind if I hang onto you for a while?" He watched as Draco regained a little of his colour and scowled down at him.

"Merlin's pants Potter, are you out of your mind? What in the world compelled you to do such a reckless thing? If I hadn't come past what do you think would have happened?"

"Not that your concern isn't touching." Harry interrupted while trying to get a better grip on the broom. "But could we possible have this conversation where I'm in a little more comfortable position?" Draco's hand closed around his arm and the blond helped him to sit in front of the broom with very little effort, much to Harry's annoyance.

"I should just have left you where you were. Honestly, Scarhead. Do you wake up in the morning and think: hey, I want to do something idiotic, why not climb the castle's walls and see how long it'll take to get myself killed? Do you live to give me a heart attack?" Draco murmured against Harry's ear while sneaking his arms around Harry's waist so he could grip the broom handle.

Grinning Harry leaned forward so that Draco had better access. "You just guessed the whole purpose of my life, Draco you are a genius."

"If you do not watch your mouth, you might be dropped. Now shut up and I'll show you just why the Firebolt is the best broom on the marked." Without further warning Draco leaned forward so he was pressed against Harry's back and they headed straight for the ground far under them.

Harry's hair whipped around because of the wind, though Harry found himself unable to care about it unless it obscured his view. It felt like they were flying like some of the birds he had sometimes watched. Unable to ignore the sudden urge which hit him Harry threw his arm into the air and hollered with laughter as they continued to drop.

All too soon the tour ended. When the ground came so near that Harry wondered if they were going to crash Draco changed the course of the broom so they now flew horizontal and slowed down.

Harry's eyes were shining when he got down from the broom and he stumbled slightly over his feat through the snow. "That was bloody amazing!" He clapped, jumping from one feet to another to get some warmth back into his body.

Draco dismounted the broom and stood in front of Harry with crossed arms. "Not that I do not appreciate your compliment about my skills on the broom but now I want to know what got you to do something so stupid. So Gryffindorish. I would have thought that spending time with me had gotten that notion out of you."

The smile slipped from Harry's face as he remembered the whole reason to why he was not lying in a comfortable bed instead of standing in the snow in nothing else but nightclothes. "I'm sorry."

"What are you talking about?" When Draco tried to get near him, Harry took a step back. Already he was speculating how long it would take him to reach the edge of the Forbidden Forest and disappear among the old trees. He was at disadvantage. Draco had a wand and would be able to stun him before Harry could get away. As much as he knew he would regret it, Harry knew that he would do the necessary to make sure that his friend would not be able to stop him. He hated the mere thought of possible harming Draco but neither was he willing to stay at Hogwarts.

Raising his fists Harry pondered on how he was supposed to do this. While he was no novice in fighting, it was rather long ago since he had done it, especially against a magical person. "What are you doing?" Draco asked wary, looking like he was facing a frightened animal. Harry guessed that it described his situation rather well. Forced to fight because he was unable to flee.

"Potter!" The yell made Harry freeze mid-step towards Draco. He recognised the tone only too well. It had been used quite a few times in his first few years at Hogwarts whenever he had been about to make a grave mistake when working with potions. Usually it ended with a big explosion.

Turning his side to Draco, Harry stared wide eyed at the approaching man. Severus was dressed in his usual black robes, like a foreboding shadow. Seeing the man Harry took a grudgingly step backwards, feeling his heart sink as Severus came closer. "Take one more step, and you will find yourself cleaning cauldrons for the rest of your miserable teen years." Knowing Severus it was no empty threat.

He already knew that he didn't have much of a chance. Against Draco he could have had the element of surprise. But Severus was a fully trained wizard and he knew him well enough to counter anything Harry would be able to think of.

As soon as he was within reach Severus seized his arm in a strong grip. Harry knew he would not be able to get out of it before the man decided to let go. "Imbecile brat. Are you trying to undo all my hard work by getting yourself killed by walking around in the cold dressed like that? You can consider yourself lucky if you do not catch yourself another round of pneumonia."

As he spoke Severus forced him to walk with him the way to the castle. "And how did you escape from the Hospital Wing? There are wards placed on the door so everyone entering or leaving is registered. We would have been noticed about your leave."

"I found him climbing on one of the outside walls like that American man dressed in red and blue." Draco said with a huff. Apparently he was none to amused by Harry's antic and he must be influenced by his godfather's mood.

Oblivious to Severus' thunderous expression at Draco's words Harry gaped at his friend, stopping momentary before he was yanked along by Severus. "You know about Spiderman?" He managed to say with a horrified expression. "I'm not sure if I should like it or take this as a sign on the end of the world. You are the model on the perfect pureblood heir." The last part was whispered as they stepped inside the castle.

"Nonsense. Blaise merely had a rebellious period where he decided that muggles were what he wanted to learn about. For some reason he decided that I had to participate and dragged me with him into a cinema." Apparently lessons were over, because the hallways were filled with students. It proved to not be a problem. Though only teaching the N.E.W.T. students Severus was rumoured to be the most feared professor at Hogwarts. It meant that no one wanted to risk nearing the man in case that house points would be deducted.

It didn't take long for Harry to figure out where they were heading. After passing the corridors leading down to the dungeons, where Draco parted from them, there were only a few places Harry could think of he would be allowed to get in.

Harry wondered if he should put his foot down as they turned down a corridor which leaded to the Hospital Wing. However one glance from Severus was enough to get him onto better thoughts. He wouldn't put it past Severus to simply carry him if he was too bothersome.

He would at least walk towards his doom with dignity.

Glancing at Severus again Harry was surprised to see how tense the man was under his anger. He probably knew or at least suspected what was going to happen but he offered Harry no words of comfort. Either he was too angry to bother with words or someone had sworn him to secrecy.

Harry was not sure what he preferred. No matter what he didn't like that he didn't know what he was heading towards. Harry was pulled inside the Hospital Wing and the doors were closed behind him.

"So you managed to locate your wayward ward, Severus." Harry took a step backwards, walking into Severus, who placed a hand on his shoulder to keep him in place.

"Yes my lord. Draco was so kind to hold him up until I could find them. Apparently Harry decided that it would be a good idea to climb out of the window without any aids. He might still have been there if my godson had not decided to pick him up on his broom." Harry stepped down on Severus' foot hard to silence the man but with bare feet he doubted it had much of an effect on Severus' boot clad ones.

Harry's eyes darted around to look anywhere else than at the two other men in the room. Under their searching gaze he felt naked. Luckily the blush on his face could easily be blamed on the fact that the warmth had started to return to his body.

Footsteps alerted Harry that someone was nearing. Still he tensed as someone came to stop in front of him. With one in front of him and Severus behind him there were not many places he could run to. Long fingers closed around his chin and craned his neck until Harry was forced to lift his gaze from the floor.

At the moment Harry had a rather good feeling of how a deer caught in a headlight might feel. Red eyes were staring into green, binding him in a way that made Harry unsure whether he would be able to move away even if he had wanted to. Voldemort was dressed in dark green robes, much like the ones he had been wearing on his birthday party. Harry noticed that Voldemort had ink stains on his hands, as if he had been interrupted in his work.

Lucius Malfoy was standing in the background. He was observing and seemed to wait for something to happen. One thing Harry was highly aware of, was how much he hated having everybody's attention on him.

He knew that proper protocol required that he bowed for them, since they were his superiors, but Harry could not get himself to move even if he had had the space to do so. "Mr. Potter how dare you to sneak out without me saying so? And you three, stop acting like this. It's no wonder that the boy looks ready to pass out when you corner him like that. Now, move aside." Having met Madame Pomfrey before Harry supposed that he should not be surprised when the woman showed the dark lord out of her way.

"Now Severus, take Mr. Potter back to the bed, get him into dry clothes and then I'll perform some tests to ensure that he has not managed to harm himself." Harry assumed that Severus nodded since no verbal answer sounded. Harry found his feet moving automatically as he was led back to and placed upon the bed where he had first awoken.

Once he was back on the bed Severus was pushed out of the place and Madame Pomfrey took over his spot. When she took forth her wand Harry instinctively moved back to the bed's headboard to get out of reach. A blush coloured his face when he realised what it was he had done.

A quick look around told Harry that none of the wizard showed any outward reaction to his reaction. At the same time Harry noticed how the three males had placed themselves around the room.

Severus was standing nearby, offering his silent support. Harry knew that the man was ready to react in case he should make a run for either the bathroom or the door out of there. Lucius looked to be enjoying the warm sun as he stood near the windows. It seemed like they had learned not to leave any openings for him to use.

Voldemort sat down on a visitor chair, on the opposite side of Harry's bed where Madame Pomfrey was bustling around. Despite the chair being simple and probably also uncomfortable Voldemort managed to look every bit like the dark lord he was. There was not a wrong fold in his robes and confidence seemed to shine out of the man as he sat there, the scarlet red eyes resting on Harry.

The man's perfect appearance made Harry aware of his own less than spotless one. After climbing around on the walls dirt marks covered Harry's otherwise white pyjama. His hair was windswept and his shin was flushed as warmth started to return to his body. "I can only wonder what you were thinking wandering outside without being properly dressed and after you have just been healed too. Perhaps next time you'll wait for me to give the clear before you leave my domain."

Harry was startled when his body started glowing violet. "Wha-"

"You have a rather impressive luck, Mr. Potter. Being dressed like this outside you are lucky if you do not get sick. I've just finished treating your frostbites. Luckily your shoulder was sat right upon your arrival so we'll not have to worry about it. However, because you left bed without permission and went outside without being properly dressed you'll have bed rest for the next few days, just so I can be sure that you will not fall dead as soon as I let you leave my supervision."

As soon as Harry opened his mouth to protest the mediwitch cut him off. "I can easily make it a week or longer if you as much as think about sneaking out again. As long as you are here you will rest and do no strenuous activities. Wards have been placed around the bed to alert me if you should have any late after effects to the Cruciatus curse or the potion you were given. Though at the state I doubt that we will have to worry about it, but better safe than sorry."

For a moment Madame Pomfrey looked about to say more. Instead she waved her wand over Harry so the purple light died out before she decided to speak over his head. "I would like my patient to get the rest he needs, but you have already expressed your urgent need to talk with Mr. Potter, my lord. Since he is not in a life threating danger I'll allow it this time. A Pepper-up potion is allowed and I will be in my office if a need for my assistance should arise. But I warn you, do not rile him up. And you, Mr. Potter, will stay in bed." With that last warning Madame Pomfrey left the room and closed the door behind her.

Well aware that he was on his own in this matter Harry sat with tense muscles, ready to jump into action if they as much as pointed a wand in his direction. "So for all those years instead of letting a squib live at Hogwarts, I've had a seer nearby without being made aware of it." Voldemort's loud musings dragged Harry's attention to the man. Voldemort was watching with an intense gaze that made Harry shiver. No, shaking. There was definitely no pleasure in the way Voldemort was watching him.

"I am a squib." Harry found himself protesting, ignoring the seer part though he knew that it probably was what weighted most on the other occupants' minds. Hoping that his mental shield would be strong enough to hold Harry looked directly into Voldemort's eyes. To his relief he felt nothing more than a brief poking before Voldemort's presence withdrew from his mind.

"I have no wish to destroy your mind just to look past your shields. Impressive, if I may say it myself. Not many non magical people can manage to keep up Occlumency shields to protect their minds from intruders. Severus?"

The Potions master stepped over to Harry's side where the mediwitch had previously been with a filled vial in his hand. "It is not something which I can take the honour for my lord. Our theory is that it comes natural with being a seer, as a need to protect the visions he gets from getting known by unwanted persons." Harry felt the blood be drained from his face at Severus' words.

Lucius Malfoy spoke for the first time since Harry had been brought into the Hospital Wing. "I remember you telling that you found him near one of the old rebel camps. I believe that you were allowed to keep him since it proved that he was a pureblood, even if he was a squib." Lucius said, studying his nails as if they were of greater importance than what they were talking about.

"Stop talking like I'm something that doesn't understand what you are talking about." Harry gritted out through clenched teeth. He was used to it whenever he was around purebloods, but it didn't make it any less annoying.

"Perhaps, then Harry Potter, you will be willing to tell me everything?" Harry stiffened at Voldemort's suggestion. He cursed in his silent mind for falling into such an open trap. If he had just stayed silent and let them continue with their assumptions or whatever it could be called he could have had more time to think up something.

Crossing his arms Harry glared at the three men, well aware that he probably looked like an offended child at the moment. "I don't see why you are so interested. Other than Severus none of you have ever shown the slightest bit of interest in me before." He said, trying to move away from Severus and the offered vial until he realised that it brought him closer to Voldemort. After that he opted on just staying where he was.

"Drink this." Seeing an opportunity to avoid answering the questions right away Harry grabbed the vial from Severus' hand. Since he was no longer plagued by visions Harry knew that the potion Moody had given him was out of his system. It should not have any effect on him to drink this. With that decision Harry placed the glass opening at his mouth and tipped the vial up, emptying its contest. Experience had taught him it was best to empty them in one go instead of dragging out the torture.

A dullness filled his body, spreading all the way to his toes and finger tips. Harry fell back against the pillow, his body slack from his throat and downwards. "That was not a Pepper-up." He exclaimed.

Severus picked up the now empty vial and placed it on a nearby nightstand. "Of course not. The Pepper-up is Bordeaux red while this one is more red with a touch of purple. You of all people should know that my potions are nothing else than perfect. This is one of my own creation, a muscle relaxer with a very weak form of the Veritaserum." Despite the plain voice Harry caught a very brief flash of regret in Severus' eyes.

Harry looked pleadingly up at Severus, but the potion still in his system kept him from truly panicking. His attention however didn't stay at the dark man for long when Voldemort broke the silence. "Tell me your story. How long have you known that you are a seer and what else do you think might be important for me to know."

Against his will Harry felt his mouth open and the words spilled over his lips without him having any say over what was happening.

"I was five when I had my first vision." Harry finally said, losing the struggle with himself for now. Though his eyes had averted to his hands Harry could feel the red gaze rest on him as a heavy burden. "Until then I had been living with some muggles. Apparently my parents would rather fight in a war they had no hope of winning than live with the shame of having a squib son."

Breathing deeply Harry continued, finding it easier to talk the more he spoke. "In my first vision I saw two people die. It was always the same two people, a dark haired man and a woman with red hair and green eyes. The scenery never changed. And neither did the bloody outcome." A grin spread across Harry's face.

"Those muggles I lived with tried different ways to stop what we believed was nightmares." Even now he felt a cold fear whenever he recalled those memories. "Then a letter arrived. From what I've heard those two people I had seen in my nightmares were my parents. It's funny to think that I never cried over my parents' deaths, rather I hated them because I saw those things before I even knew about them."

He clearly felt the effect of the potion. Harry doubted that he would have managed to stay this calm otherwise. On the other hand, neither would he have been speaking about this subject if he had had a choice in the matter.

"Unfortunately my U- one of the muggles had heard enough details about my nightmares to know that I had somehow dreamt of this before it even happened." The grim grin slipped of his face and finally did Harry look up from his lap through his gaze was slightly unfocussed. "Shortly after that Dumbledore showed up at the doorstep. Apparently they had used the owl delivering the news about my parents' deaths to contact him. He took me away. Now that he found out that I was no longer just a squib, I was suddenly useful to his case and therefore I should be among my parents' kind." Harry trailed of, not wanting to continue.

"Then what happened?"

Because of the circumstances Harry could only throw an angry glare at Voldemort. If the man had planned on cursing him it would have been done after his failed escape attempt. "While my visions probably were a huge advantage for them, some people at the top of the food chain apparently decided that they didn't come frequently enough. From some chubby brewer they manage to produce a potion which took care of that problem." Despite the muscle relaxation potion Harry felt his body was tense. He longed to be able to run in case one made as much as a wrong move in his direction.

"The potion worked. Whenever they forced me to drink it, I had to view whatever came to me." It was strangely hard to put much of any emotion behind his words. "After a few accidents I found a way to break the control the potion had over me, at least for short amounts of time. In theory I suppose you can compare it to the effort put behind breaking the Imperious curse. But here something else is needed. Pain. So in between one of my visions when I was eleven years old, I got hold on a knife and carved a wound on my forehead."

Looking past Voldemort's shoulder Harry tilted his head enough to the fringe would move and he knew his scar came into view before he let it fall back into place. "It distracted me long enough to manage to get out of where I was and later same night Severus stumbled over me where I had fallen, and he decided to bring me with him back to Hogwarts. After hearing my story he decided that the best way to keep me safe would be to take me in."

Harry kept his lips tightly pressed together. He refused to reveal the threats he had told Severus when the man had contemplated to tell anyone else about him and his skills. Luckily for both of them Severus had given in or else Harry was not sure that he would still be alive.

So in a way he supposed that he owed Severus a life debt though the Potions master denied it.

A goblet was placed on his lips and Harry eager drank the cool substance, not caring if it was poison at the moment. To his surprise it was not the case but rather did he feel the mobility return to his body, much to his relief.

When the cup was emptied the dark lord placed it aside, an all knowing smirk on his face which immediately sent Harry on the edge. The feeling and control had returned to his body, proving that not only water had been in the cup and he subtly flexed his limbs, checking that everything was as it was supposed to be.

Not that he didn't trust Severus' brewing skills but he just didn't like taking potions of any kind and find it better to be safe rather than sorry. "I have a proposal for you, Mr. Potter."

Harry blinked, not sure how he was supposed to react. No matter what this was not what he had expected to happen. Why hadn't they just thrown him into a locked room and doused him with experimental potions to see which one would provoke him to have visions?

After all that was what Dumbledore and his Order had done.

When Harry made no sign to react Voldemort spoke again, apparently not put off by Harry's silence. If anything the man looked approving, though it might just be that his brain was still affected by the potion he had ingested.

Looking overly comfortable as he sat in the chair next to the bed Harry was in, Voldemort finally began speaking. "Back in the old Greece seers were not a rarity. They were known as oracles at that time. However, what made them so special was that they always claimed to be neutral, no matter what. And people respected this because they knew that otherwise the oracles would either refuse to tell them anything about what they saw in the future or simply leave."

Harry peaked up at Voldemort's words, while trying to figure out just why the man was telling him this. "It would not be strange if you considered going the same way as the old oracles did."

Harry couldn't help it as the laughter bubbled over his lips. Remembering who his company was, Harry quickly got control over himself, whipping the tears out of his eyes. "Even if you and your people would be willing to do that, you forget that I have a so called light lord and his crazy order after me. They know where I am and as long as I live they will be hunting me. Either to use me or to make sure that no one else is able to."

Somehow he doubted that the hunt would stop unless his corpse was thrown at Dumbledore's feet and various tests were made to confirm that it really was him.

"I will give an oath that I will do everything in my power to ensure that you do not end in the hands of Dumbledore, his order or anyone who supports him. Furthermore if you are captured I will do everything to make sure that you are freed." Though the words came rapidly Harry got the distant feeling that this was something lord Voldemort had been planning.

"For what price?" If any of the men felt surprised by his question they hid it before Harry was able to detect it in their faces. Before Voldemort could start and lead him around in circles Harry decided on continuing speaking. "There is always a price. Do not claim that you have suddenly decided to take the role as the good Samaritan. What do you demand to protect me?"

From the looks of it Severus was pleased that he did not just jump right into it with both legs. Harry supposed that something from the Potions master's many rants actually had managed to stay.

"One year." In confusion over Voldemort's words, Harry tilted his head slightly to the side while looking unequivocally at the man. "That is the difference between the time you have spent with the Order and here at Hogwarts, providing information to the different parties. It would only be fair that you turned neutral when that evened out. Once that year is over you will be able to retreat, and be under my full protection for the rest of your life, if that is what you want." Voldemort said.

"And what does that enclose?" Enquired Harry.

"Merely that you continue what you have done before. But unlike before, you will tell the visions you have to either of the three of us in this room. I would prefer it if you came directly to me whenever possible. And you'll not report a vision to someone who does not already know of your ability and has my approval. To make sure that no misunderstandings arose I will make sure that you know who those people are. Furthermore you will not leave Hogwarts without notifying someone of your going and coming."

Mulling over what had been said Harry was surprised to find that there was not much he could argue against. He didn't like the feeling that his every move would be restricted. But it would only be for a year and then he would be free to do whatever he wanted to.

And for not telling anyone about the visions he got, Harry was sure that he could work around that problem. After all he could still warn people if needed without directly telling them about the vision itself, it was what he had been doing for years already.

"Okay." Harry agreed. Voldemort nodded, and rose from his chair, surprising Harry. He did not know much about how wizards completed a deal, but he had thought that there was more to it than just this.

"One last thing." Harry said, making the dark lord pause near the door and turn his head to look over his shoulder. Swallowing Harry met the man's gaze head on. "If I should be captured and there isn't a way I can be freed I want you to send someone to kill me."

"I will see you on a later time. For now you will rest, and I advise you to do no more neck breaking stunt or the year will be spent under Madame Pomfrey's supervision. _We will speak later, little seer_." Voldemort replied with a curt nod, having spoken the last part in parseltongue. Harry gaped as Voldemort left the Hospital Wing, shortly followed by Lucius.

When they were alone Harry turned to look up at Severus. "Please tell me that he was kidding." He pleaded, though getting no answer from the dark man.

**)00(**

After leaving the Hospital Wing Voldemort went for the Headmaster's office, the only place in the school where one could use the floo connection. Next to him Lucius walked, having caught the sign for him to follow.

Harry Potter was truly an enigma. Before the New Years Eve Voldemort could hardly recall seeing the boy around the castle, since he tended to spend his time in the safety of Severus' dungeons.

To think that such a treasure should be hidden in a squib was rather ironic. It made him wonder what other secrets the boy might carry.

He definitely wasn't a weak person, as Voldemort had first assumed, that much the boy had already proved. Following the Malfoy heir onto a dangerous mission just to save the brat's life, if Severus' report was to be believed. His escape attempt from the Hospital Wing, and lastly his request to be killed in case that he should be captured by the Order of the Phoenix.

Not that Voldemort intended for that to happen. He would not lose such a great source now where he had gotten his hands on it.

"My lord, may I ask, why a year? This is a unique opportunity to gain the upper hand against the rebels. It does explain how Dumbledore and his followers had that surge of success a few years back.

"Are you done with questioning my methods?" Voldemort asked as the gargoyle moved aside, revealing a moving staircase which took them up to the door leading to the office.

"I apologise my lord." Lucius bowed his head briefly.

Waving the words away as if they were mere flies Voldemort took the seat which was usually reserved for the headmaster. Lucius took a seat on the opposite side of the desk, watching him closely. "As you said yourself my lord, seers are quite a rare phenomena. There are few born and most tends to go crazy or commit suicide because of what they are forced to witness. And even if they survive those seers tends to speak prophecies they do not even remember afterwards."

Voldemort folded his hands and rested his chin on top of them. "From the boy's little speech it's clear that the boy has gotten used to people using him like a tool instead of seeing him as a human being. He would only fight me all the way if we tried to force him into something. You heard his request. He will rather die than being risk being with the so called Order. He is willing to go far to escape what waits for him with those people. However if I just offered him protection for no price, not only would he not believe me, but he would not be willing to hand over the information he has access to unless he feels that it is absolutely necessary. And even then there would be no guaranty that he would tell everything."

"I see." Lucius nodded to himself. "Now he will feel that he has gotten the better part of the deal. He only has to serve you for one year and then he will be protected for the rest of his life. But what about afterwards? Even if you have him for a year, after that he will not have to report to you." Lucius tapped a finger against his silver cane. "Unless the year is used to our advantage. Perhaps something can be done so he will stay here, or at least somewhere safe, and offer his service."

Voldemort watched with a smirk when Lucus grew silent, clearly considering possible ways for the plan to success. "At the party it became clear that there is a connection between your son and Harry. One would actually call them friends."

Lucius sneered until he remembered that Harry was no longer only a squib. "Yes, Draco enjoys Potions and visiting Severus. I believe that it's because he would not see his precious lab blow to pieces that Severus forced them to get along. It has developed to friendship from there, though Draco thankfully didn't bring it out in the open."

Humming lowly to himself Voldemort spoke. "We will use the boys' friendship to introduce Harry to the Wizarding world. Even if he's a squib his seer status allows him to be among purebloods. Make sure that Draco introduces him to other young purebloods and ensure that they understand his new position so no misunderstandings happen."

The old man had probably started searching for the seer now. It would be of no use to keep the boy a secret since rumours have already started to flow. No, it was better to have him out in plain view and at the same time make it so everyone knew that Harry Potter was under his protection.

Seeing the thoughtful expression on Lucius' face Voldemort decided that it couldn't hurt to hear what the blond lord had to say. "He told that he had been left with muggles for a part of his childhood." Lucius said, the sneer back on his face. "I suggest that we look into it. If we can find out who those people are we might visit them and find out something about the boy's past."

Voldemort mused over what had been suggested. It could indeed give him an advantage when handling the boy in the future. "Find those muggles' identities. It shouldn't be hard. They have some kind of magical connection to be contacted by owl and know how to respond with one. Knowing Dumbledore they might be some relatives of the boy or some other of Dumbledore's known supporters. I'll decide their fate when I have gotten the knowledge from them that I want."

After that the silence was only broken when Lucius came with suggestions to how they might be able to win the little seer over. Voldemort would either brush him of or simply nod in agreement.

His thoughts went back to when he had exited the Hospital Wing. The little seer had had a startled expression in the green eyes when he had spoken to him in Parseltongue. Since it was a well known fact that he spoke his great ancestors language, Voldemort could not let go of the gut feeling that something else had put that look in the youth's eyes.

Little seer.

Yes, that was a rather good description of the petite built boy, Voldemort mused.

**So, options?**

**Next: A lifedebt and Harry gets a vision. **

**I was wondering if any of you people know a good story where Hermione goes back in time to where Tom Riddle is in school. I think it could be funny to read how the two geniuses are when they have class together. It would be... interesting, in a lack of better words. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**Beta: angelhitomie**

"And just where do you reckon you are going?" Harry jumped in surprise as a warm breath ghosted over his ear the moment he stepped out of the Hospital Wing.

From where he was sprawled out on the floor Harry tilted his head back to glare at Draco. The blond had been leaning against the wall next to the door. "Aren't you supposed to be in class right now?" Harry hissed, getting back on his feet and brushing his hands off on his clothes.

A concerned look was on Draco's face as he stepped over to him. "You didn't get hurt, did you? And it is rude to answer a question with a question." Grey eyes raked over Harry's body as if trying to spot any broken limbs. When Draco reached out for him Harry slapped the hands away and took a step away from the blond.

"Sure that you are willing to be seen with me in a public place?" Harry asked, not caring that there was currently no one else in the corridor. "What if someone like your aunt comes by? Are you just going to dump me and act like we don't know each other?"

With all that had happened Harry had in the meantime forgotten the way Draco had abandoned him on New Year's Eve. And when he had last seen Draco, Harry had been focussed on more important things to touch the sore subject between them.

Surprise painted Draco's face but instead of coming up with a sharp retort Draco took a careful step towards him. "You can't still be mad about that. It happened nearly two weeks ago."

Standing his ground Harry simply shifted his weight so he was ready to move with a seconds warning if that should prove to be necessary. "If you hadn't dragged me out of the dungeon, it wouldn't have happened in the first place. I wouldn't have ended in a situation where I might have lost my life because I was somewhere I had nothing to do. And then you would have been killed the very next day!"

From the pink spots on Draco's cheeks the blond was either embarrassed or on his way to get angry. "Damn it Scarhead. It is not like I could have done anything against the dark lord himself. My father was there and if I had dared to go into your defence it would have done you nothing good. If you hadn't worn those ridiculous robes I would easily have gotten you through without anyone paying attention to us."

Narrowing his eyes, Harry placed his hands on his hips as Draco apparently tried to place all the blame on him. "Careful, blondi. I have hit you before, and I can easily do it again."

Automatically Draco's hands flew up to cover the middle part of his face. "You wouldn't dare." Draco declared horrified. "It took hours to make sure that my nose was as straight as it had been before."

"You deserved it." Harry said, taking a step towards Draco so they were nearly standing chest to chest.

"We were eleven years old!"

The excuse did nothing to help with Harry's bad mood. "You tried to lord over me, because you had magic and still lived with your family. If Severus had not come in at that moment something else would have been broken to, I can promise you that."

A sudden grin broke out on Draco's face. "Do you remember the look on his face when he saw the state his living room was in after he broke up our fight?"

At the memory Harry found it nearly impossible to keep a similar expression off of his face. "He was livid. And he refused to let any of us leave until the room was back to its normal state."

Draco grimaced at that. "Who would have thought that forcing us to work together would actually get us to accept each other? If not because it put some of his precious Potions ingredients in danger, I would not be surprised if it actually proved to be something Severus had planned all along."

Harry felt his lips twist upwards in a smile. "Yeah, he yelled, not even half an hour after he had berated us for not using our inside voices."

The two boys shared a smile at the memory. "So are we good?" Draco asked, suddenly looking rather unsure of himself as he offered Harry his hand.

"Fine with me." Harry chided as he gripped Draco's hand, shaking it in the process before he let go. "So, aren't you supposed to be in class?" School started only three days after New Year's Eve. And it was not even lunchtime yet. So by all means Draco should have been in a classroom instead of waiting for him.

"That is one of the good things about being ahead of the class and being the professor's godson. Since Severus knew that you would be allowed out today he scheduled it so we are going over theory and he sent me out to make sure that there would be someone with you once you got away from the dragon. And before you protest, it is fully legal. And even if it wasn't I doubt that anyone of importance would say anything when they see that I am accompanying you. They wouldn't dare to question a Malfoy if they know what is good for them." Draco said the last part loudly while glancing at the portraits they passed.

"How much do you know?" Harry blurted out, the question having plagued him since he had been escorted back to the Hospital Wing four days ago.

Grey eyes flickered over to him before they moved around to check out their surroundings. Harry didn't get any warning as he found himself dragged into a niche, with Draco blocking the exit and Harry's back was pressed against the cool stone wall. "Not that I am not flattered, but you are not really my type. Besides, I thought you planned on marrying Greengrass. Last time I checked my surname was Potter." Harry quickly closed his mouth, realising that he was rambling.

"You are a seer." The confession made Harry freeze up and the beat of his heart picked up until it felt like the organ was working its way out through his chest. "It was a little hard avoiding finding out when I had all the signs right in front of me." Seeing the look on Harry's face Draco hurried on. "After Moody gave you that potion I first thought you were merely unconscious. But you opened your eyes a few times and they were fully black."

Realisation stuck Harry like a lighting bolt. He knew that Draco had studied the book in Hogwarts about the old Greece and therefore also the seers. But where Draco had done it as a part of an assignment for History of Magic, Harry had done it out of necessity.

He had needed to know if there was anything which could give away what he was and how he could possible hide the signs from others, so his secret would stay a secret.

"Some seers' pupils expand whenever they have a vision. As of yet no one has been able to come up with an explanation to this though several theories are going around about it." Harry citrated from one of the books he remembered reading. "Ow, what did you do that for?" Harry rubbed his now sore arm while glaring at Draco.

"How dare you to keep such a secret from me? I could have gotten an O on that assignment instead of the EE professor Binns gave me. And think of all the bets we could have won about the results of the Quidditch matches. I would of course have shared the profit with you." As Draco got a dreaming expression on his face Harry broke down laughing.

Whipping the tears away from his eyes Harry managed to get a hold on himself as he leaned back against the wall. "Only you Draco." He shook his head in amusement.

"My father has always said that it's important to start building your own fortune from an early age." Draco explained with a pout upon his face.

"Even if you had known about it, my ability doesn't quite work like that, so I doubt that you would have gotten much use of it." Harry nearly groaned as he recognised the glint in his friend's eyes.

"Tell me, Harry, how does being a seer actually works? The tomes I have gone through were rather vague about it." Draco said in a voice as if the books were to blame for the bad grade he had gotten. Draco grabbed his sleeve and dragged Harry with him out of the niche. Seeing that they were moving in the general direction of the dungeon Harry figured that he might as well just answer the question.

"I have never met another seer, so I cannot say how it works for them. Other than the books here and what Severus has been able to provide me with, I have been learning from experience." Harry paused, trying to figure out how he was supposed to explain this the best way.

"My visions come easiest when I am asleep, but nothing stops them from coming when they want to. I can hold them at bay for a limited amount of time, but it gives me a killing headache, so unless it is really necessary I try and avoid it." Harry grimaced. The evening he had been facing Voldemort the headache had ended with his head feeling like it was splitting into two.

"One thing I have learned however is that even though I see something in a vision, the future is not set in stone. Sometimes my interference prevents things from happening and other times whatever I do prove to be the catalyst."

"So when you decided to come running like a maniac?" Draco trailed of as they stepped through the portrait leading to Severus and Harry's chambers.

Harry sat down on the sofa and waited until Draco joined him on it next to him. "It was rather by accident. I had hoped to catch you and delay you until the portkey had already left, but I caught up to you too late. And as you know, the portkey went off and took us all with it." Rubbing the back of his head Harry glanced at Draco, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.

"But yeah, you would probably have died. When I tackled you the Killing curse was heading straight at you." It wouldn't surprise Harry if Mad Eye had been the one to throw the curse at Draco.

A loud shriek left his lips when Harry suddenly found himself lying flat on his back on the sofa. Draco had Harry's feet on his lap, and with a sweep of his wand two soft and fluffy pillows appeared under Harry head. When Harry tried to sit up, a pale hand planted in the middle of his chest effectively kept him in place.

"Draco, you are acting strange." Harry said, stating the obvious. "Have you been a victim of a prank or has there been an accident in Potions which you forgot to mention?" He asked Draco.

"Since you saved my life I now owe you a lifedebt." When Harry opened his mouth to protest, Draco quickly cut him off. "Don't argue with me. I come from a long line of purebloods and any member of one of the old families prides themselves of following the traditions. It would have been something else if you had been a muggle since no one can expect them to understand such a complicated thing. But even though you are a squib you are technically also a pureblood which is all that matters. However since I'm still a minor it means that my parents also fall under this debt."

Harry's brain was trying to process what Draco had told him. Though, never having received the same education as his magical peers Harry was not ignorant. He blamed it on living with Severus. The man had books enough to fill the Hogwarts library and then he would still have some left. And he had insisted that Harry studied them.

But he was getting off tracks. Looking up at Draco, Harry licked his lips, his mind only able to come up with a single question. "How do I get rid of this debt?" He finally asked.

Draco looked positively horrified. "You don't get rid of something like a lifedebt. It's the same as saying that my life is worth nothing in your eyes." Harry winced at the accusation but he knew better than to speak to Draco when his friend was like this.

"Perhaps you will not speak such nonsense if I explain it to you. One thing is reading about it, it's a whole other thing to grow up with those rules. My magic has already recognised that you saved my life, which means that I now owe you a lifedebt, something no one is able to change. Until the debt has been paid back you are under the Malfoy family's protection. And before you say that I do not owe you anything, then let me say this. It's my magic which decides when the debt has been fulfilled. You can think of it like you suddenly gained membership of my family. Like a close cousin or a little brother. And please do close your mouth." Draco told him.

Digging his heals into Draco's thigh Harry did as he was told. "I'm no ones little brother."

Draco simply shook his head. "Harry, Harry, Harry. You're smaller and younger than me. Of course you would be the little brother. It only gives me more of an excuse to protect you." This time Harry kicked Draco though the blond swiftly moved his legs so Harry missed his intended goal.

"I have done fine enough those past years. Believe me when I say that I do not need more protection." Draco seized his ankles with both hands so Harry didn't have a chance to kick him again.

"It appears that you are the only one who assumes that." The silky voice made Harry's head turn in a nearly impossible angle to look at the speaker. The portrait fell shut behind Severus, who had just entered the living room. The hair was greasy from the Potions' fumes, indicating that he had come directly from class.

"What do you mean with that?" Harry asked, as he got his feet freed when Draco was distracted by Severus' arrival. Ignoring the glare Draco sent him Harry sat up, waiting for Severus to answer his question.

Looking him over from afar Severus sat down in his old armchair. "The deal you made is something the dark lord will take very seriously and he will use it to his own opportunity. He has already arranged guards for you and I have been walked through the security measures which he finds necessary to ensure that Dumbledore or the Order will not be able to get hold on you again."

Harry scowled at Severus' words. "The next thing you tell me is that I have gotten a curfew." When Severus failed to deliver an answer straight away Harry jumped up and started pacing the floor. "I didn't agree to this. He has no right to try and dictate my life." Running a hand through his hair several times Harry finally turned around to face Severus.

For as long as Harry had known the man Severus had always been able to come up with a solution to his problems. This time however it did not seem to be the case. "You made a Magical oath with the dark lord. For the rest of your life you are under his protection. You didn't make any demands, so the dark lord has free hands. Should he desire so, he could easily lock you up in some tower and throw away the key."

The impact of Severus' words made Harry's legs give out under him and Harry sat down on the floor, uncaring about the look he got from Draco. Groaning Harry buried his face in his hands. "My life is so fucked up." His voice was muffled by his hands.

Severus' voice broke through his stupor. "It is unlikely that the dark lord would do that." Harry looked over the tip of his fingers and met Severus' black gaze. The man was watching him calmly from his chair. "The dark lord will not risk the mistakes Dumbledore made. Seeing that locking you up and forcing you to have visions only makes you fight and flee, he will use another way, but in the end he will get what he wants."

Listening to Severus' baritone Harry's muscles gradually relaxed. He lowered his hands and settled on fidgeting with one of his sleeves. Harry hated the slight burning in his cheeks. It had been years since he had allowed himself to react like this. Though it felt somewhat good he decided that he would rather avoid those episodes in the future.

Sighing Harry got on his feet and wandered over to the couch. Not a minute after he had sat down Harry found Severus hovering over him with a wand in his hand. "While Madame Pomfrey might be a contempt mediwitch, she does not know your medical story as well as I do. Also, knowing you, it'll be best to check you over to make sure that you have not managed to hide some injury of yours, foolish brat." Severus said, ignoring the low groan from Harry.

A few years back he had realised that this was Severus' way of making sure that he really was okay. It was only because of this that Harry was touched by the fact that the man cared for him that he didn't protest too much about the unnecessary treatment.

**)00(**

The grime wouldn't get off no matter how hard Harry rubbed his hand. Focussed on his task Harry therefore didn't register that anyone was in front of him until he walked straight into someone as he stepped out of the Potions' laboratory.

Before he could fall two hands seized his upper arms and steadied him. Harry blinked owlishly before green eyes focussed on the person he had just walked into. "Hey Draco." Harry greeted, happy that it wasn't some stuck up pureblood heir he had run into.

Wait, Draco fit that description but at least Harry knew that his friend was unlikely to curse him right on sight. Draco raised a pale eyebrow which completed his annoyed expression. "Do you have any idea of how long I have been waiting for you? And then you do not even apologise!"

"Sorry?" Confused Harry tilted his head to the side. "I didn't know that we were supposed to meet." He sent Draco a pointed glance, waiting for the blond to explain what he had in mind.

At Draco's smirk a sinking feeling settled in Harry's stomach. He glanced towards the door, wondering if it was too late for him to make a retreat. By that time Draco had already started off with him. "I had History of Magic this morning so I had some time to think." Harry wondered if he could knock himself out if he banged his head against a hard surface enough times. "It was then I realised that you need to become more social."

Hearing what Draco said Harry dug his heals into the ground though it didn't do much to stop the pureblood. "Draco, have you lost your mind? Even if I wanted to be social, which I don't, people here wouldn't touch me with a ten foot pole. Besides, I have you and Severus, I don't need to know more people."

From the look Draco sent him over his shoulder Harry guessed that it had been the wrong thing to say. If anything it only made Draco look more determined. "Nonsense. While you were in the Hospital Wing, rumours about your seer status started to swirl. People are curious. They want to know if there is any truth in those. It's the perfect time to build some connections."

Instead of turning left and heading for the entrance, Draco dragged him down the opposite direction. Harry trailed behind Draco, refusing to admit the fact that he was pouting, while he dragged his feet after him.

Severus had ordered him to bed early yesterday and Harry had thought that it was because he was fresh out of the Hospital Wing. This morning he had found himself out of bed before the sun was up. Even with the help of those students Severus assigned detention, plenty of work had hobbled up for Harry to do.

Wherever Draco was taking him Harry sincerely hoped that there would be some kind of food. Other than a light breakfast he had gotten nothing to eat and they were well over lunchtime. If anything he wouldn't be surprised if they were closer to dinner rather than lunch.

Down in the dungeon it was like a labyrinth. Harry supposed that it was done on purpose. Salazar Slytherin had probably done it so his students would be well protected in the case than someone was inane enough to attack the school and actually got past the remaining protections. No matter how Harry looked at it, the man was paranoid.

But the dungeon had been a good place to be whenever he didn't want to be disturbed.

As for where Draco was taking him Harry got his answer when the blond stopped in front of a bare wall. "Slytherin's common room" Harry breathed out, and he winced at the look Draco sent him. As his status as a non-student he wasn't supposed to know where the four common rooms were. "I saw it in one of my visions." He merely said with a shrug.

"Vetus Graecia." Draco merely said. Harry frowned before his brain came up with what he believed was the most correct translation. There was no doubt in his mind who had come up with that password.

Grumbling Harry followed Draco through the hole which had appeared when Draco said the password. "You aren't going to let go of that, are you?"

Whatever response he got Harry didn't notice. He was far more busy with observing the room they had just stepped into.

Green, silver and black were the three colours dominating the room. A big fireplace was lit and made sure that it was a comfortable temperature despite them being underground. Harry noticed how the armchairs and couches were placed in groups. It made it so one was able to study in somewhat peace or perhaps plot with the fellow snakes without being disturbed by others.

As he finished studying his surroundings Harry turned his attention to the people in the room. To his surprise it was only in the sofa group nearest the fireplace that a group of students sat, the rest of the room was vacated of people. By Draco's lack of surprise Harry assumed that this was arranged.

Before Harry had a chance to see them, he found himself dragged over to the small group. For every step Harry took he felt himself grow tense. Even without moving his gaze from the ground Harry felt how he was being watched. It made him stumble over thin air before he managed to straightened himself and Harry blushed at the sound of a soft chuckle.

When Draco came to a stop so did Harry. To his regret Draco had let go of him and with his hand the small feeling of comfort was gone too. "Everybody, this is Harry Potter, ward of Severus Snape and a seer." Draco presented him.

Unable to think of anything to say Harry fell back on what Severus had drilled into his head for whenever he was among purebloods. "It's an honour to meet you all." Harry spoke as he bowed from waist up before he straightened up again. Despite the soft spoken words Harry allowed his gaze to meet with everyone. To his annoyance he was unable to read any of their expressions. Though now that he thought about it, Harry supposed that it was not that much of a shock.

The five Slytherins were all in Draco's year of school and if Harry remembered correctly those were heirs and heiress to some of the more important British families, at least in the Wizarding world. Even without Draco there to present them for him, Harry would at least be able to say what families each of them were from.

"He's so adorable." The girl said, almost jumping from her seat on the couch. "Hello, my name is Pansy Parkinson." The girl, nearly a woman spoke. She was rather pretty, Harry supposed. The only one who he could think of being able to outdo her were the females of the Greengrass family. Every time she moved, her dark, shoulder long hair bounced around, as if it had a life on its own.

When Harry made no sign of answering she continued, not the slightest bit put off by his lack of reaction. "I am the heir to the Parkinson family. I like winter because of the snow and my favourite colour is blue. Royal blue to be exact. I enjoy spending time with my friends and Blaise, who is my boyfriend. I also-"

"Do you always talk this much?" Harry's mouth snapped shut as soon as the words had left him. The girl blinked, seemingly surprised by his outspoken.

A dark chuckle, the same which had sounded when Harry nearly had stumbled over his own feet, sounded from the male next to the Parkinson girl. The arm wrapped around her shoulders didn't escape Harry's notice.

The boy was clearly of Italian descent. He was rather tall, dark skinned with high cheekbones and long, brown slanting eyes. The smile he sent Harry was pleasant and if it was not for the proof that he was together with the Parkinson girl. "This is Blaise Zabini and over there is Theodore Nott."

Harry's eyes moved over to the next boy as Draco presented him. Theodore Nott looked up from the book he was reading. The tome was nearly bigger than the thin boy.

In another sofa Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were seated, their muscled bodies forced them to sit close together. Harry's green eyes unwillingly lingered at the cakes they were slowly devouring. His stomach moaned at the sight of the food disappearing into their mouths and out of sight.

"Come Harry, join us." Harry wasn't given the time to answer before he found himself in a small couch with Draco next to him. Unlike yesterday Draco didn't sit close and Harry missed the comfort the small gesture would have offered.

He nearly jumped out of his skin, when Pansy suddenly stood in front of him. The girl had narrowed her eyes as she looked at him closely. If he didn't know better he would have thought that her eyes would be able to burn holes through his clothes.

"Darling Draco, you are right, he is an absolute sweetheart to look at." Two arms wrapped themselves around his neck and Harry found his face pressed against something very soft. The only positive thing he could think of, was that at least his blush was hidden from view.

"Pansy, I think you are choking him." Just as fast as the arms had come they disappeared again and Harry drew in a thankful breath as his airways were no longer blocked.

Coughing Harry leaned a little forward, his body tense in case that the girl would try anything like that again. If that was the case then Harry was prepared to flee for his life. "Are you alright, Harry?" Draco asked. Mutely Harry nodded as he sat back in the sofa. Warily he glanced over at Pansy, who was already back at her seat next to her boyfriend.

Harry made a mental note to keep an eye at the girl in the future. If she could move that fast, he wanted to be prepared in case that she should ever find a reason to attack him. Thinking that over Harry decided to simply be prepared whenever they were in the same room.

"Behave and concentrate, Pansy. There is after all a reason to why I took Harry with me here." At Draco's words Harry peeked up. Until now he had still been given no explanation to what he was doing here.

Pansy nodded sharply as her eyes returned to Harry, running up and down his body. "Focus, right, I can do that." At her frown Harry shifted uncomfortably. "Sorry to say it, but grey is so much not his colour. I would go for darker shades. Green would really bring forth his eyes. I have never seen such an intense green. Are you sure that it's his true eye colour? I have heard that muggles have something called lenses. It could be something like that. Normally I would guess a glamour, but since he's a squib-"

Harry rose and Pansy cut off her sentence in surprise. "If you would please excuse me." He merely said in response to the look he got from his six peers. However before he got far Harry found himself physical retrained. It seemed like Draco had learned well from that one time Draco had attempted to stop him with magical means.

"Harry, why are you going?"

Though he knew he was going to regret this, Harry looked black. Mentally he winced at the look Draco sent him, which reminded him of a kicked puppy. Sighing Harry knew it when he had lost. That didn't mean that he was just going to throw in the towel. "If you are going to act like I'm non-existing I might as well leave. There are things which I can do rather than listen to what colours suits me or not. In case that none of you remember it, the rules clearly state that a squib is only allowed to wear grey robes." Harry said.

Despite his own words Harry followed Draco back to the couches where he once again was settled down. As soon as he sat down, the Nott heir looked up from his book with an almost regretful expression. "While what you say is true, do remember that you are also a seer. Therefore, while you'll still have to wear something grey, it doesn't have to be much. Pansy merely wanted to see you so she knew what she had to work with." With that said Theodore once again disappeared behind his book, leaving Harry to sort through what he had just been told.

Harry wisely kept his mouth shut, while Pansy kept going on what colours he could use and which one he should avoid at all costs. Draco heartedly debated with her. Harry's didn't even try to participate in the discussion, but merely made a neutral sound whenever one of them spoke to him.

From next to Pansy Harry noticed the sympathetic look he got from Blaise. It's clear that the Zabini heir had gotten used to the duo's discussions but he also felt for Harry.

When he had spoken up, Harry hadn't thought that any of them would actually listen to what he said. He had no doubt that if this had happened before he's been outed, they would just have laughed at him. But then again, he wouldn't have sat with them like this. Chances were that he instead would have been in their quarters or helping Severus in one of the laboratories.

It was while he watched Blaise that Harry felt the headache announce its arrival. At first he simply ignored it, not wanting to break the good mood. But as the headache grew in strength Harry shifted uncomfortably. Normally he would have found a hiding place by now. Somewhere quiet and dark where he was unlikely to be disturbed while he waited this one out.

His impression of Vincent and Gregory were that they were slow wizards with a tendency to follow instead of leading, simply because it was much easier. And yet it were those two who first noticed that something was wrong.

"Are you pregnant?" The question startled Harry and if not for the pain behind his eyes Harry would have laughed. As it was he could only shake his head mutely. "Are you sure? Because my cousin looked like that when she was about to give birth to her first child." Vincent continued.

"He doesn't look pregnant." Gregory said.

Vincent huffed. "And how do you know that?" Through the pain Harry wondered if they were acting like this on purpose, or it this actually was how they usually were. Both options were rather disturbing.

Gregory looked at Harry's stomach pointedly. "Aren't pregnant people, you know, supposed to be fat?"

As only now seeing Harry's lack of fat, understanding dawned for the other boy. "I suppose you are right. Do you think he has eaten too much candy?"

If there was any response to Vincent's question Harry didn't hear it.

**)00(**

Harry didn't recognise his surroundings. But the costly artefacts and moving portraits around him made him believe, that he was in some pureblood's home.

Unlike when he had been under the influence of the vision enforcing potion Harry was not thrown from one vision to another until he was left too dizzy to figure out what foot he was supposed to stand on.

Being in this ghostlike stage Harry let his eyes wander. He knew that there was no use of trying to force anything to happen. So he decided to just wait for now, knowing that there would be a reason to why he was seeing this.

The room he was in was a bedroom and it probably belonged to a female, if the decorating was anything to go by. The room had been done in a rose colouring, with plenty of useless decorative things lying around. Over the bed a portrait of a young woman, enjoying her evening tea, hang. Harry frowned at the oddity. While he knew that purebloods prided themselves of their ancestors most of them kept the portraits out of the bedroom to have some privacy.

Further observation was stopped when the double door opened and the sound of laughing voices drew his attention to those who had just entered.

"Why me?" At the sight of the barely dressed pair Harry's first instinct was to cover his eyes. Feeling like some peeking Tom Harry stumbled his way to the back wall, where he was stopped from going any further.

Meanwhile the couple had moved over to the bed, if the sounds were anything to go by. Knowing that he was there for a reason, Harry uncovered his eyes. Harry jumped out of the way when a pair of shoes came flying in his direction. One of them passed through his body, reminding Harry that he was not really there.

Uncomfortable with the pair in the bed Harry decided to watch the portrait. The woman in there, seemed unfazed with what was happening right in front of her. As if she was used to this kind of activities, or perhaps even enjoying it. When Harry risked a quick glance at the bed, his face coloured and he quickly looked away.

By now the man and woman had shed all their clothes. If not for the differences in their skin colours he wouldn't have been able to tell where one body ended and the other one began.

A sound which Harry didn't connect with a bed when it involved lovemaking drew Harry's attention back to the pair. The woman was lying on her back, her dark hair spread over the pillows. The male was sitting across her, the bed sheets pooling around them and luckily hiding most of their bodies from view.

But where the man's hands before had been busy roaming over the woman's dark skinned body one of them now held a knife, already tainted by red blood. The other hand was out of view, but Harry assumed that it was used to keep the woman in place.

Again and again the man brought down the knife, and Harry flinched, feeling sick to the bone. He took a step forth before he remembered that there was nothing he could do other than watch the murder happening right in front of his eyes.

Distinctly he noticed that the woman in the portrait had disappeared. Harry assumed that she was off to alert someone. But when he reached that person it would already be too late. The amount of damage done to her was nothing something one could survive unless a miracle happened.

Apparently the man had reached the same conclusion, as he stopped after a last stab. The man cleaned the knife in the bed sheds before he stood. Once again Harry wanted to cover his eyes as the man stood not far from him, only dressed in his birthday suit. This time he didn't allow himself to do as he wished. As the man started dressing himself Harry watched him closely, though his eyes stayed over waist level.

Once dressed and with the knife hidden in his robes, the man looked around the room. For a moment his eyes rested on where Harry was and the seer feared that the man might actually be able to see him. However he calmed himself with the fact that he man wouldn't have acted this carefree if he had known that there was someone watching him.

Even after the man had left the room Harry stood as frozen, staring into space. There had been something familiar about the man's blue grey eyes, but as it was Harry was unable to place where he had last seen those eyes.

Shaking himself out of his stupor Harry dragged his feet over to the bed where the still warm corpse lay.

Had he not seen her alive, Harry would have had a hard time with imagining what a beauty she had been when she had still been alive. Her face was frozen in pain and fear, very telling about how her last few seconds had been. Noticing the blood soaked sheets Harry's eyes travelled downwards to the wounds.

In such a short amount of time the attacker had managed to do quite some damage to her upper body. It didn't look human anymore if Harry should be honest with himself. Even the ribs had cracked under the forced used during the attack.

**)00(**

When Harry opened his eyes he found himself lying flat on his back. Hovering over him was Draco, though it took Harry a moment to focus enough to realise who it was.

Groaning Harry pushed himself up in a seated position, while he pushed away the hands which tried to hold him down. As a positive thing the headache was no longer plaguing him. But his throat felt dry and swollen, indicating that he had screamed sometime during his vision.

Harry managed to put up a shaking smile while he pushed himself to his feet, stumbling a little before he found his balance.

"I need to see Voldemort." He rasped out, already heading for the exit.

**Vetus Graecia should mean Old Greece on Latin, I used Google translate, so if it is wrong, please tell me so I can correct it. **

**Next: Is Harry really a squib and Harry gets to meet his guards? Not telling who it is, but you are more than welcome to guess. Cookies to those of you who get the correct answer.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**Beta: angelhitomie**

"Severus, what can you tell me about your ward?" Voldemort asked, after the Potions master had sat down in one of the chairs in the big office.

The dark clad man hardly looked surprised by the question, though Voldemort had made no effort to hide the reason why he had invited the man. "What would you like to know, my lord?"

Voldemort's lips twisted. The question alone revolved so much about both the man and the seer. Severus was loyal to the boy if he tried to lead him around like that. It made Voldemort believe that he had made the right decision about what to do with the seer. If he had taken a page out of Dumbledore's book, he would not only have an unwilling seer but he would also have to be careful with any potions made by Severus and anything which had generally been near the man.

Indeed he had done the right thing.

Also with that question Severus had basically told him how well he knew the boy. "What do you know about the time your charge spent with the rebels?"

For a long time Severus didn't answer him and Voldemort started to wonder if the man was going to answer at all.

"Harry only rarely speaks of anything which happened in the past. In the first year or so he'd regularly nightmares, which left him screaming his throat raw. The Dreamless Sleep Potion I brewed at that time rarely had an effect on him. And now he doesn't speak of it. I suspect to get his whole story we will either have to find someone who knew him at that time or use legilimency on him.

The wizard's words told Voldemort what he needed. If one attempted to use the mind arts on the seer, what little trust there had been build up between the two parties would be broken. Also, he had seen the seer's defences. As he had pointed out before, he could break the defences down, but it would be with the risk of breaking the seer's mind. "Then, what can you tell me?"

Severus hesitated, but as he started speaking, information came with a rapid speed. "When I first found him, he shielded away from touches, indicating that he was unused to human contact, at least of the friendly kind such as the one which are shared between friends and family. He also blankly refused to drink potions of any kind. Since it only spelled troubles with my kind of profession I decided to teach him a little about what I did. He turned out to be better than some of the dunderheads I usually teach."

From Severus it was a compliment. The Potions master rarely liked many people, if any at all.

"Since he's a squib there are plenty of potions he is not able to assists you with since they require a certain level of magical power. And yet, I can recall several incidents where you have been elsewhere while such potions were being brewed. Also I know that you wouldn't let any student be on their own in your laboratories." Voldemort waited, truly interested in what answer Severus would give him. The theories he had come up with sounded ridiculous to his own ears.

Houseelves only rarely went into any of the places which the Potions master considered his. In the past Voldemort had written it off as Severus not trusting the creatures to mess up something with their mere presence. Now however, he knew that it most likely had been to protect the seer from privy eyes and ears. It also meant that Severus had not let the houseelves do his work in his absence.

"It is commonly known that potions done by muggles or squibs are useless since the brewers do not have the magic necessary to activate the natural magic that are in each ingredients and thereby help the potion to be perfect. However, while Harry is unable to do magic, I wouldn't classify him as a squib." Severus sipped of the wine before he continued.

"I noticed it when I had been delayed and I expected to return to a ruined laboratory. As you know, the Wolfsbane Potion is a highly unstable potion and if a squib even stirred the Potion, I would have had to start over. Imagine my surprise when I found my new assistant doing just that, while he waited for me to come and take over for him."

Severus cleared his throat, but otherwise he seemed calm as he continued. "I did a long series of tests on him and I found that the brat indeed is not a squib."

At the Voldemort raised an eyebrow. "I am not calling you a liar, but I have read the paperwork on the seer's test. Those results left no doubt that he is unable to use a wand and therefore he was categorized as a squib."

From the expression on Severus' face Voldemort only knew too well what the man's opinion about the Ministry was. Even after he had taken the whole thing apart and built it up from the bottom, the Ministry had faults. Voldemort placed a great part of the blame on Dumbledore and the problems the Order caused, but also on humankind as a whole.

But already Voldemort was planning how the tests should be changed so they would avoid such a mistake in the future, if Severus indeed was speaking the truth. The test was based on an accident pureblood ritual, which was used on Samhain night to tell the parents whether or not their child was magical or not.

"Unlike muggles squibs have magic, but they're unable to access it. The results Harry got look similar to that of a squib. But unlike those, he has access to his magic, it is just all concentrated on one specific area which means that he will not even be able to make a wand shoot sparks if he tried on that." Severus ended his explanation with draining his glass of wine.

"Since he's a seer, it leaves him unable to do magic." Voldemort said out loud to himself, not expecting an answer and neither did he receive one. Voldemort placed his fingers on his lips.

It certainly changed things. The boy was a first generation pureblood, because of his pureblooded father and mudblood mother. Normally it would place him as one of the lowest in pureblood society. Add to that his squib status and no one would look at the youth twice with other than disdain.

But Harry Potter had also several factors which spoke in his favour. Some purebloods were aware of the danger of inbreeding and if Harry managed to get some children in the future, they might allow some of their sons to marry with his daughters.

Also, the youth was the only living heir to an old pureblood family, that would be a way for some of those lower families to take a step up. They would perhaps let some of their youngest daughters marry to him, despite the shame of being married to a squib.

The two things which would weight most on peoples' minds were Harry's seer status, they'd hope that his ability would carry on to further generations. After all who wouldn't want to have a seer in their family? And the protection Harry was under would draw people further to him.

People would be wiling to overlook Harry's lack of magic if they believed that it would better their position in the society.

"I'll look into the matter personally." Voldemort promised his Potions master and received a nod in return.

Further conversation was halted when the door to his office was slammed open.

**)00(**

Harry's didn't wait for any of the Slytherins to follow after him as he quickly departed from the common room. He was reminded of the morning he had run the same way to save Draco's life. This time he was at least presentable dressed, it was way better than when he had to walk through layers of snow, only dressed in his nightclothes.

He didn't bother with checking his and Severus' chambers. When he had been ordered out of the laboratory earlier Severus had informed him, that he would not be there. It would have been easier if he had known where Severus had gone. Through the last five years Harry had told Severus about his visions. The thought of doing so with someone else, made him uncomfortable.

Though never having been there before Harry knew somewhat where Voldemort's office was located. He'd avoided the general area, not wanting to risk running into the dark lord. After all, Harry had known that one word from the man who ruled the country would be enough to get him thrown out of Hogwarts.

But now Harry had permission, and he had a rather good excuse to seek out the man. Because of Severus' absence the deal compelled Harry to seek out Lucius or Voldemort. And while Lucius Malfoy was Draco's father, Harry didn't trust the man. Not that he did so with Voldemort, and for all he knew, the Malfoy lord might not even be at Hogwarts at the moment.

After fifteen minutes of running through corridors, hidden passages, and up moving staircases Harry finally reached the third floor, where he knew that Voldemort had his quarters for when the dark lord stayed at the school.

The portraits here were different than those at the rest of the school. Passing them Harry noticed that several of them had snakes engraved in the frames or painted in the actually portrait. It didn't surprise him considering the fact that Voldemort was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin.

"Excuse me, but is lord Voldemort here?" Harry asked, as he paused in front of a portrait of an elderly man with greying hair and a snake curled around his neck. The male looked at him with piercing dark green eyes.

"Indeed he is." The portrait drawled, his eyes resting on Harry's grey robes, though there was no emotion to spot in them.

"Can you tell me where he is?" Harry started shifting his weight from one foot to another. He didn't know when what had happened in his vision would occur. For all he knew, it could be happening in this very moment. Because of a non living thing holding him back it might already have happened.

"He is in his office. Down the hall and through the black door with snakes engraved in the wood. Though he has a visitor at the moment-"

"Thanks." Harry interrupted before he took off. Harry found it best to be polite to the portrait. From the looks of it the portraits here were of rather important people. Rather be polite than risk giving some of them the need to take revenge. It wouldn't surprise him if some of them had been smart enough to make it so that they could use magic when they were only portraits.

It didn't take long for Harry to find the door the portrait had been talking about. He pulled the door handle down and put a little more force than necessary when he opened the door.

Harry faltered as he stepped inside, realising that it would probably have been a good idea if he had knocked on the door before he opened it.

Onyx and red eyes were focussed on him. "Hey." Harry squeaked, his face covered by a fiery blush. He breathed in deeply and waited a few second before he let out the air. "I'd a vision." He said, not being able to think of anything else to say as he was stared down by blood red eyes.

The moment the words had left his mouth, Harry felt the gaze on him shift from annoyed, to interested and attentive. "Close the door and sit down." At Voldemort's words a new chair appeared in front of the two men, creating a perfect triangle. Harry bowed and closed the door before he crossed the distance and sat down.

Harry found that it was easier for him to look at Severus and ignore Voldemort's presence. It made it feel more normal. He could imagine, that it was just the two of them as he recited the details of his vision for the two men in the room.

"A woman will be murdered. There was nothing which could indicate when it happens, but it's a magical home, chances are that it belongs to a pureblood family. The woman was tall, coffee coloured skin, black hair and dark eyes. My guess is that she is Italian, or from somewhere close to there."

Harry frowned briefly, trying to recall the details from his vision. Both wizards stayed silent, none of them wanting to break his concentration. "They were in a bedroom. It was too personal to be something they had just rented and from the decoration I would say that it belonged to the woman."

"And the attacker?" Severus' calm voice reminded Harry that though he wanted them to act fast so the woman's life could be saved, he didn't want to send someone to their death. That had nearly happened once in the past when he had rushed over the details.

A shiver at the memory of the punishment which followed afterwards didn't escape the notice of either of the wizards in the room.

"He was a few inches taller than the woman. Broad shoulders and dressed in robes which looked like something a Malfoy would wear. His hair was dirty blond, cut to his shoulders, there was no scars which were visible to me." The fiery blush returned to Harry's cheeks as he remembered just how much of the man's body had been visible to him.

"They were in the bed when the male decided to attack her."

Harry's eyes flickered over to Voldemort on their own will. The man's face was unreadable, but he was watching Harry intently, taking every word into him. Quickly Harry returned his gaze to Severus, but not before he noticed the smirk playing on Voldemort's lips.

"The knife is the only hint that the man was not some muggle the witch had decided to humour herself with. It cracked her ribs under the attack, it has to be enchanted in some way, otherwise it would not have been able to cause that much damage."

Harry shuddered as the woman's mauled body appeared before his inner eyes, surrounded by the blood soaked sheets. "After making sure that she was dead the man redressed and left."

Before any of them spoke Harry decided to voice his suspicion. "I believe that he used something to hide his real features. When they first entered the male's eyes were brown, much like the woman's skin. But afterwards the eyes were grey blue. Also, his hair had started to darken, though I cannot say for sure what colour it was turning into."

Having finished Harry allowed himself to look at Voldemort. The whole time he had spoken, Voldemort had not spoken, and the dark lord had let Severus handle the situation. The man's red eyes were resting at Harry, though they had a faraway look in them, as if they were not really seeing the seer.

"Severus, find Lucius and inform him of what we have just been told. Then take the Lestranges with you. You have my permission to use the internal floo connection. Floo directly to the Zabini mansion and wait for Lady Zabini to come with her prey. Attack when you are sure that he'll not be able to flee. I want him brought here, Harry, you will stay."

Harry, who had stood with Severus, sunk down in the armchair. His eyes followed Severus out and stayed at the door after his guardian had left. The fact that Severus had left without looking back would portably have bothered him, if not because he knew that it's the way Severus was. "So, what happens now?" Harry asked, feeling the need to fill out the silence which had arrived in Severus' absence.

He used the silence to look around. Voldemort's office was Spartan decorated, not the slightest bit like Harry had imagined it might be. However the few decorations probably cost more than any of the Potions ingredients that Severus ever would let him handle. The walls were done in a creamy colour and the floor in dark wood. Rather tasteful if Harry should say so himself.

But the room was bare of anything personal. Harry guessed that it was meant to impress whoever Voldemort brought to the room rather than being comfortable. Why else would the man have a miniature statue of a basilisk standing in the middle of the room?

The rustling of clothes alerted Harry that someone was moving but it was only when a cool hand came to rest on his forehead that Harry registered it. His teeth clamped down on his lower lip to stop any embarrassing sounds from leaving his mouth when Harry found Voldemort's face right in front of his own. Even when the man was kneeling down in front of him, Harry was dwarfed by Voldemort, only reaching to his nose.

This close the man had an unearthly youthful look. While wizards aged slower than muggles it was simply not normal for a man in his seventies to look like he was in his mid twenties.

When he breathed in a little deeper than necessary Harry couldn't avoid noticing Voldemort's scent. It was pleasant, almost captivating for the lack of better words. Harry was left unable to analyse the man's smell but he definitely wouldn't mind getting more of it.

Harry snapped out of his stupor when he realised that Voldemort was speaking to him. "- didn't say anything about you being effected like this after a vision." Blinking Harry's brain was scrambling to catch up with what Voldemort had just said.

"I'm fine." Harry said with annoyance clear in his voice as he pushed away Voldemort's hand. He had just come out of the Hospital Wing and he didn't want anyone, especially a dark lord, to mollycoddle him. It was bad enough that Draco had started on doing so.

From the look on Voldemort's face Harry could tell that the man didn't entirely believe him. Nonetheless the hand retracted and Harry allowed his breathing to return to normal once Voldemort had returned to his own chair. The glint of something, which Harry was sure had been there a moment ago, was gone. "As you may be able to recall, we agreed that in exchange for your service you'd be under my protection." Severus' words from yesterday immediately jumped into his mind.

"If you as much as think about locking me up in a tower and throw away the key, no one will get any use of my visions." Harry was forced to close his eyes as memories floated his mind. A dark cupboard, filled with spiders. Darkness where he listened to the muggles wander around, talking to themselves and ignoring his existence.

Later the cupboard had been shifted out with changing locations. One thing, however, had been the same. He had always been locked up. Unable to leave.

He was halfway out of the chair when an invisible hand closed around his neck and threw him back in the chair. The chock and the pressure on his neck made Harry stop struggling, realising where he was, and who else was in the room with him.

A look at Voldemort told Harry that the wizard was not amused. Calmly the man rose to his feet and walked over to him, as if his magic did not have a choking grip around Harry's neck. Nudging Harry's legs apart Voldemort stood between them. With the closeness between them Harry could easily feel the heat from the man's body. When the man leaned down, his knee brushed against Harry's crotch, making the smaller male still all movements.

"As interesting as your suggestion sounds, it is not what I had in mind. Is it something you saw in a vision?" Voldemort's warm breath washed over Harry's face, smelling slightly of wine and cinnamon. As he spoke, a pale finger caressed Harry's cheek and Harry nearly went cross-eyed as he tried to focus on the finger rather than the leg pressing against his groin.

Harry drew his head back with a sharp intake of breath. "No, someone merely pointed out that you have a little too much free-way with your part of our deal." Harry decided to leave Severus' name out of the conversation. Though not having seen or heard anything he doubted that the dark lord had let the Potions master get away unharmed for hiding Harry for all those years.

Voldemort withdrew and the hand around his throat disappeared. Harry's hands flew up to his throat, gently massaging the sore skin. "If you are that unsatisfied we can renegotiate the transaction." Voldemort went back to his chair and crossed one leg over another. "Of course you'll have to offer something which will make it worth for me." Voldemort said with an expression Harry thought was entirely too smug for his own good.

Harry's mouth snapped closed at Voldemort's last words. Other than his seer ability, Harry could think of nothing to offer the man. Already Harry was in the dark lord's service for a year. He didn't want to prolong it. But would it be worth it, when Voldemort currently had a say over every aspect of his life?

Having made a decision Harry opened his mouth to speak, but he hesitated. There might be something else he could negotiate with the man.

"The Potters were an old pureblood family." Harry blurted out. When Voldemort merely raised an eyebrow, Harry felt encouraged to continue. "It's my belief that they have a vault in Gringotts and if that is the case there might be something else than money in there." Seeing that he had caught Voldemort's interest Harry carried on. "If there are any artefacts I'll allow you to pick one to take out of the vault."

Harry waited. He knew that Voldemort would not say no to an offer like that. Purebloods guarded fiery over their vaults and the artefacts followed the family through generations.

Sometimes a thing or two went with a girl when she married into a new family. But with all the inbreeding there was, it something only took a few centuries before the artefact found its way back to the original vault.

"Four."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "Two. And I get to veto some of the things in there." He refused to let the dark lord have free regime in his family vault, if that thing indeed existed.

Looking at him with piercing red eyes, Voldemort nodded curtly. "Very well, but then I will choose I third object which you'll carry with you all the time unless I'm requesting otherwise."

Harry gnawed on his lower lip, ignoring the fact that Voldemort's eyes had yet to stray from him. "Nothing cursed, hexed or jinxed. And not something which can have an ill effect on me, be it my body or mind." After a short afterthought Harry added. "I will be able to take it off when brewing or otherwise working with ingredients to potions, and it'll be nothing which can control me."

Though being a so called light family the Potter had married with several neutral and dark families in the past, such as the Blacks. It wouldn't surprise him if several dark artefacts had been added to the vault through time.

"We will discuss the terms you find necessary when we have returned from our visit to the vault. I'll have to take care of the prisoner once he is brought here. So it'll have to wait for a later date, when I have time." Harry just nodded. At least they had reached an agreement. And the delay would give him time to see if he could gain access to the vault.

"If we're finished-"

"Sit." Bristling at the order Harry stayed where he was. He could still feel the earlier attack but refused to step down. When Voldemort took forth his wand Harry's jaw tensed on instinct though he knew it was only meant as a warning gesture, for now.

When Voldemort flickered his wand, it felt like all bones had disappeared from his legs and Harry fell back in the armchair with a surprised yelp. "Now where I have your attention." Voldemort said as he tugged away his wand. "There are some matters which we need to speak about. Of course, if you believe that you have more important matters to attend, you are welcome to leave."

The feelings returned to Harry's legs and yet he didn't attempt to leave the chair again. The pleased look on Voldemort's face irked him, but Harry found it more important to find out what the man had planned.

Seeing that Harry was not about to leave Voldemort let his wand disappear. Harry doubted that it was out of reach, and as he had already seen the dark lord could do wandless magic, so he doubted that it really made a difference. "Hogwarts has plenty of old wards which will protect you as long as you stay on the grounds. However, as soon as you leave you'll be like a sitting duck, waiting for someone from the Order to find your location." Though not liking it, Harry could see the sense in what Voldemort was saying.

It was one of the disadvantages about not being able to do magic. However Harry had often found that though he didn't have magic, it didn't mean that he was defenceless when he was attacked by someone who believed him to be an easy prey.

"Therefore I have assigned a small group of purebloods to look after you whenever you leave the school. There will be others, but those three will be officially assigned to this. If necessary they'll be ready to give up their lives for you." Voldemort's words sent a cold shiver down Harry's spine. It reminded him that the man had not won a war by playing nice.

If Voldemort said that they were ready to die, Harry could only assume that the words were true, no matter how much he hated the thought of people dying for him.

But as it was Harry couldn't think of purebloods who fit into what Voldemort had told him.

"I choose the Lestrange trio for this. They are above mediocre in cover and have the experience to know how to handle most situations. Also, they will be enough to keep an eye on you." Voldemort said, making Harry sound like a child, which needed babysitters.

Harry grimaced but otherwise he showed no reaction to Voldemort's searching gaze. The thought of spending time with the Lestranges, any of them, was enough to make him want to rip out his hair.

Harry supposed that the so called guards would have to be included in future negotiations. He saw the use of having magic users with him, but nearly anyone else he could think of, would be better than those three.

"Please tell me, that Zabini does not owe me a life debt too." Harry pleaded, remembering the reason to why he had come here. Also, this helped to stop him from thinking about the way Voldemort seemed to watch him.

The way Draco had acted yesterday was more than enough to drive Harry mad. The thought of more people added to that mess, made him want to run screaming into the Forbidden Forest.

When Voldemort spoke, Harry snapped back to attention.

"As you are not actively participating with the mission itself, there is no ground for the life debt to be created on, unlike when you actively stepped in and saved the Malfoy heir's life. And those I sent off are under the same oats as the healers and aurors are. So no more debts will be created. But the people you saved before our agreement fall under the same category as when you saved your friend's life."

Harry nodded silently. He had no plans about giving Voldemort what he was fishing after. Not even Severus knew the full number of people whose fate Harry had intervened with, directly or indirectly.

A big Horn owl swept through an open window. Harry stayed still as Voldemort lifted one arm and the owl landed on the robe clad arm with a secure grip. Despite the talons digging into his flesh Voldemort showed no outwardly reaction as he read the message which the owl had brought with it.

The small parchment went up in flames and before the ash could land on anything Voldemort had already banished it. The owl hooted in surprise, glaring down at Harry, as if he was to blame for what had just happened. "Despite their differences they are quite an effective team. It might interest you to know that they managed to arrive to catch him before he could take forth the knife." Realising what Voldemort was talking about Harry felt himself blush.

"Oh, are they bringing him here?" Harry asked. He felt split about the opportunity to possible meet the man. Harry blamed it on the eyes. They had been nagging him since his vision. He knew that he had seen those eyes before. And it had been for more than just a passing moment. But for the life of him he couldn't remember who they were supposed to belong to.

"So, what is going to happen with him?" Harry gnawed on his lower lip and ignored the short shut of pain the action brought him.

Voldemort sent the owl off, and it flew a few rounds over their heads before it flew out of the window and out of sight. "It's not something which you'll have to worry about. If you leave now, you might be able to catch up with Draco and your peers. I'm sure that Miss Parkinson is not finished with you yet." Harry released his lip from his teeth in favour of grimacing.

"Urg, don't remind me. And how did you know about it?" He asked, though he already had a few ideas how the dark lord had come to that knowledge.

"I'm omniscient." As he stood Harry could feel Voldemort's gaze on him. "I have to agree with Miss Parkinson. There are better colours to you than grey." Dumbly Harry nodded. With a brief bow Harry swept out of the door, copying Severus' walk.

Harry walked until he was away from the third corridor and to a place where he knew that no portrait or person would spy on him.

"Hello Harry, have you decided that you'll share the afterlife with me?" The ghostly form of an once female Hogwarts student appeared in front of him not long after Harry had entered the bathroom.

"Sorry Myrtle, my time among the living ones has not yet come to an end." It was a bizarre sight to see the ghost pout at this. However after having been asked the same question for several years by now, Harry was unfazed with it.

Not long after he had started living at Hogwarts, Harry had noticed that people tended to avoid this bathroom. Even the other ghosts stayed away. When Harry had entered the first time he had been assaulted by a crying and screaming ghost. However, the eleven year old squib had refused to leave no matter how much the ghost had yelled at him. Luckily people were used to random noises coming from the bathroom and therefore no one had thought to check out what was happening.

It was only when he had asked how she had died that Myrtle had stopped her temper tantrum. Apparently no one had asked her about that and the ghost had been flattered by his question. One thing lead to another and now Harry found himself visiting Myrtle whenever he needed to get away from people in general.

"I heard that you were in the Hospital Wing, but you didn't die." The ghost said with open disappointment.

Rubbing the back of his head Harry sent Myrtle a small smile. "The circumstances weren't the right ones." He offered as the only explanation. Myrtle seemed satisfied with his answer as she floated away.

Thankful that the ghost understood his current need for a little alone time Harry headed over to the big sinks and sat down near them, so he was out of view in case that someone should step inside.

By dismissing him Voldemort had made it clear that he didn't wand Harry to meet the prisoner. However the man should have made it clearer if he had wanted Harry to stay away from the man.

Harry doubted that they would finish questioning the man in one day. And when the man was brought away for the day Harry would be ready to act.

It was only good that Severus and his living quarters were in the dungeon, where the cells for prisoners also were located.

**)00(**

Harry had always found it strange that there were prisoner cells in the lowest levels of Hogwarts. The founders had build the castle as a school, what did they even need cells for?

But Voldemort used the cells to contain those people whose fate he had yet to decide on, and which had somehow caught his interest.

Slowly Harry crept forward. He had left his shoes back in his room, to be able to move more silently. Also, Severus had a tendency to be awake at strange hours because of some of the potions the man worked on. If the man noticed Harry's shoes missing, he would know that Harry was wandering around.

Though not having an official curfew like the students, Harry had mostly made sure that he was in his room or the laboratories after dinner. It helped him avoid those students who drifted around, looking for something to amuse themselves with now that the lessons were over for the day.

But in the dungeon only those brave or with a suicide wish would walk around after curfew. And this deep in the dungeon people didn't come unless they had something to do.

Harry knew he wasn't supposed to be there and normally he wouldn't have bothered going. But the eyes had been nagging him most of the day. No matter what he had done to distract himself, it hadn't worked.

Having gotten enough Harry had therefore decided to seek out the would-be murderer, the reason to why he was looking into cells rather than being asleep in his bed.

Most of the cells were currently empty. Harry supposed that it made sense. No pureblood would be happy if they knew that there were prisoners in the same building as the one their precious children went to school.

It was the smell which first told Harry, that he was going the right way. The copper smell of blood and something else which reminded him of some of the time he had spent with the rebels.

Clenching his hands and breathing deeply through his nose Harry got his feet to move forward. It was because of what had happened lately. He hadn't had flashbacks for years, at least not in such a manner. But now he found himself reminded of the rebels and the time before that by even the smallest things.

"Lily?" The raspy voice brought Harry's feet to a stop. The seer stood in front of the cell. The only thing separating him from the prisoner was the bars. Suddenly Harry started to doubt if this had been such a great idea. There was nothing he could do to defend himself should the man somehow manage to slip out of his cell.

While Harry stood as frozen the man moved from the back of the cell. Harry had a feeling that had the bars not been there, the man would not have stopped before he was right in front of Harry.

Seeing the wizard Harry now knew that the man had used something, probably a Polyjuice, to change his looks.

The man was tall , he had a gaunt, sunken face, waxy skin. The teeth were yellow and the long hair was matted. There were clusters of blood on the man's face and probably also in his hair. He looked rather much like a corpse, so different from when Harry had seen him in his vision. The man wore the same robes as he had done then, but they were tattered now.

Hearing his mother's name Harry's lips pulled into a sneer. "Sorry, wrong gender. But you are close, I suppose, since she donated half of the genes to create me." Harry donned, copying Draco's attitude while he crossed his arms.

At the blank look on the man's face, Harry couldn't get the feeling that Severus was right, when he said that some people simply let their brains rot. "Harry?" The man's word was nothing more than a whisper and still it easily reached Harry.

"Now that you have proved that you know me, perhaps we can move along?" The man blinked slowly, visible shocked by the youth's harsh words. It did, however, not keep the man to stay silent for long.

"Harry?" Frustrated Harry ran a hand through his hair, he knew he shouldn't have let it hung loose, but he was not about to change it now. And the robes could look like something both women and men would wear when the light was not that good. Perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised to be mistaken for his mother.

"Unless James and Lily produced more children before their demise and where unimaginative when it came to choose a name to said child, then yes, I am probably the Harry you are thinking about." Harry let his hand fall to his side. This was not how he had imagined the conversation would go.

"Who are you?" Despite having seen the man's real face Harry still couldn't quite place him He just needed a little more time and then Harry was sure that he would have his answer.

Apparently the man didn't hear his question. "I haven't seen you in ages, prongslet. Last I saw you, you looked like a carbon copy of James. Why did they force you to grow you hair long? It's bad enough that you are a squib, but do you also have to look like some bloody girl too?"

Forcing his temper down Harry decided to attempt again. "What is your name?"

This time the question caught the man's attention, and if his scandalous expression was something to go by, Harry might as well have asked the man to give up his firstborn child.

"Do you not remember me? I'm Padfoot." When Harry showed no sign of recognition the man tried again. "Your godfather, Sirius Black."

Green eyes widened in realisation, before they narrowed into slits. Without warning Harry surged forward his hand coming in contact with the man's nose. A satisfying crack sounded, making Harry smirk in satisfaction despite the dull pain in his hand.

"Bastard. Be happy that I don't have magic or you would be suffering. If it wasn't for those bars I would skin you alive!" Harry hissed at the man, dragging out the S's in a snakelike manner.

Black was busy staring at him and didn't seem to notice the blood running down his face. "Prongslet, what have they done to you? Who put you under the Imperius, or are you under the influence of a potion?" If not because Black had been standing out of reach Harry would only too gladly have hit the man again. As it was he settled down for a glare.

"Funny that you should mention it. Since coming to Hogwarts, I have had it better than any other time I can recall, and the best of it all is that no one is forcing potions down my throat. And that is despite being a squib and looking feminine." He didn't dare to yell, no matter how much he wanted to do so. Harry didn't want to attract unwanted attention.

Seeming having forgotten the earlier attack, Black stepped closer so it was only the bars which stopped the man from coming close up to Harry. "Harry, get me out of here. We can run away together and everything will be alright." Harry hesitated at Black's words. Could it really be that his godfather did not know about the things which had been done to him?

"Dumbledore is searching for you prongslet. You can help turn the war and we can stop You Know Who's terror regime. People doesn't have to be killed anymore. But we need your visions to have an advantage." Black pleaded.

Harry recoiled as if he had been burnt. Anger flared up in him and he spat at the man. "You are really an idiot. Did you really believe that I would return to the rebels after all that they have done to me? Most people might not like me, but at least I'm not tortured daily. I've people here who care for me as a person, and who do not merely see me as a tool to be used for the greater good."

Harry breathed harshly, trying to keep a tight regain on his emotions. "Did you know that since Lord Voldemort took over, less people have been dying, been put in Azkaban for an unfair reason, and more jobs have been created?" He figured that it would irk the man to hear him call the dark lord by his title, making it clear who his alliance belonged to.

From the looks of it, Harry would say that his method was working. "You Know Who killed your parents. If your father had been in your place he wouldn't have hesitated for a moment to help me. Perhaps you are less than your father than I had thought that you would be."

Harry's face felt like it was made out of marble, making it impossible for him to put any kind of expression on it. "Did it ever occur you, that I didn't know any of my parents? That to me, Lily and James Potter were just two strangers that gave away their child after finding out that I was a squib?"

Not wanting to spend a moment longer with the man, Harry turned around on his heel and strode back to his and Severus' quarters. Harry walked briskly, wanting to bring as much distance between him and the prisoner as quickly as possible. Otherwise Harry feared that he might turn around and do something he would end up regretting.

Much faster than when he had left Harry found himself back at the entrance to Severus' chambers. Silently Harry begged that Severus would be otherwise occupied as he let himself in.

"Did you finish your errand?" Harry jumped in surprise and raised an arm to protect his face. From the shadows Severus stepped forth. The Potions master took in Harry's defensive stance and raised an eyebrow at what he saw. "I see. It might be in your interest to know that the dark lord has wards in the dungeon which alert him of the coming and going of anyone who enters the part where he holds the prisoners."

Harry wanted to hit himself for not thinking of that before he had left. He lowered his arm. "It's not like I set him loose or something like that." Feeling a light probe on his mind Harry let his mental shields lower and allowed Severus to see what had happened.

As soon as the memory ended Harry pushed Severus out of his mind none too gentle. While he trusted Severus to keep his secrets, under oaths, Harry wouldn't put it past the man to dig a little around in his memories should he ever get the chance to do so. "Can I go to bed now, or is there something else?" Harry was surprised that he managed to keep his voice even despite the inner tumult he felt.

A cut nod let Harry know his answer "Just be sure that you keep your distance to the mutt in the future."

As soon as the door closed behind him, Harry let his shoulders slump. In his room he knew that Severus would not come in. Not without knocking on first or in case of an emergency situation. It was a rule Severus had made to make Harry feel safe when he had started to live with the man.

Even now Severus followed the rule though Harry had learned that the man would not come into his room in the middle of the night and pour a potion down his throat.

The small smile slipped of his lips. Though he now had his curiosity satisfied Harry almost wished that he had not gone to search for the man. He knew who he was. The man had been appointed by Harry's parents to love and take care of him if something should happen to them.

It was almost funny to think of how they had all failed to do so.

Shaking his head Harry started to prepare himself for bed. Black had made it clear how much he had expected Harry to be like the late Potters. How could Harry, when he did not remember seeing them outside the vision where he had been forced to see them being killed? To him, they were strangers who had put him through hell in several ways, just because he was a squib.

He hated them.

Pulling the bedcovers up under his chin Harry decided not to think more about it. His parents were dead and so would Black probably be soon.

The list of people he hated seemed to grow shorter, and it didn't even happen by his own hands.

Falling asleep Harry wondered if the list would be empty when it was his time to leave.

**So, opinions?**

**Next: Harry goes to Gringotts and Diagon Ally.**

**So, I've read Dreams and Nightmares, a brilliant story by the way, where Harry is transformed into a phoenix and ends in the care of the dark side and Voldemort. It made me wonder if there are any other stories like that out there. Where Harry is turned into some sort of creature, magical or muggle kind, and then taken in by some Slytherins. **


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry about the delay. Mortimus forgot to pay the bill, so I went without internet for nearly a week. Feel sorry for me. **

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**Beta: angelhitomie**

Despite falling asleep late Harry was up before most of the people in the castle would even think of awakening. From the soft snores which he heard when he passed the door to Severus' room Harry knew that the Potions master was still asleep. Smiling Harry took extra caution while sneaking out, knowing that even the smallest sound could disturb Severus' slumber. And though Severus mostly let him do as Harry wanted, he didn't want to face the man before Severus had gotten four cups of coffee.

Before that it would be safer to try and steal an egg from a nestling dragon rather than face Severus.

Only when he was sufficiently out of earshot, did Harry allow himself to let out a breath he did not even know he had been holding and walked normal. Whistling a merry tune Harry sat off towards his destination.

This early not even the most eager Ravenclaws had come to the library. It left Harry to room around without the glares which usually followed him as soon as someone noticed the colour of his robes. As if they thought he would try and steal the book. Or perhaps because he didn't have magic, he shouldn't be allowed to read books about the subject.

The first timehe had voiced his concern to Severus, the man had created a pass that allowed Harry access to the library because he was Severus' assistant. And if a book about another subject found its way into his pile, then it was pure accident. The pass worked splendid, especially since he had Severus and Madame Pince's signatures on it.

Harry only opened the door enough for him to slip inside before he let it fall close behind him. He breathed in the dry smell of old parchments and ink. Already knowing that he was alone, Harry headed over to a part of the library where he hoped that he would be able to find what he was searching for.

Harry had soon settled down in his usual chair. He was in full view from the spot where Madame Pince spent most of her time when she was in the library, but still in a secluded spot. Around him Harry had already placed several books about Potions. The one he had his nose buried in, hold so, that the title was hidden from view, was on a whole other subject.

**Life debts are something settled between wizards and witches, purebloods, as well as halfblood and muggleborns. Never in history has there been a registered life debt between a wizard and a muggle. **

**The cause of this is quite simple. A working, magical core is required for the magic to register that its wielder has been saved from a life threatening danger. Their magic registers the magical core of the one who saved the magic's wielder. **

**If no magical core is found, the wizard's core will assume that no outwardly source came to help the wielder and therefore no debt is made.**

**It is also the magic inside the wizard which decide how far its wielder will have to go to fulfil the debt. One might see this as a mild form of the Imperious curse. Magic itself urges the wielder to help their saviour, so that the debt will be settled.**

**However, certain families have forgotten the old ways and are therefore unable to listen to anything that their magic tells them. Therefore life debts are rarely seen nowadays. **

"Is it an interesting book?" The question startled Harry and he would have fallen out of the chair if not for the hand on his shoulder, which steadied him. Breathing in Harry registered the smell of cinnamon and he knew who had come to disturb him.

As the few other times Harry had seen the dark lord, Voldemort was properly dressed. The green robe he was wearing was made in a tad lighter shade than usually but it left no doubt which family the man originated from.

Before Harry could answer the book was picked out of his hand. "A fascinating choice of reading material." Voldemort commented. while his eyes skimmed over the page Harry had been reading. "Are you trying to see what you can get out of those others who owe you a life debt?" The man asked, and closed the book before he placed it out of Harry's reach.

The question made his hackles rose. "No, I am not interesting in making people fall over themselves to help me with every little thing. Rather I was trying to see if there was a way I could demolish the debt. I figured that the ones who owe the debt can do nothing, but perhaps there is something which I can do." Harry said, sending the book a pointed look until Voldemort moved into his line of sight.

Scowling Harry looked up at Voldemort. The dark lord looked almost amused by Harry's reaction to his words. "Most people would enjoy the fact that a Malfoy owe them something, therefore there has not been done much research on that subject. The fact that magic decides when the debt is paid also plays an important role in that." The man said, sounding like he was lecturing a student.

Remembering how Draco had reacted when Harry had touched the subject Harry rubbed his neck. "I understand. It's just that it's the first time someone this close to me owes me. I don't want it to change anything between us." Harry confided in Voldemort.

The dark lord's face was bare of emotions, not giving Harry an idea of what was going on on the other side of the red eyes. "What exactly is the relationship between you and the Malfoy heir?"

"Draco has been my friend for nearly as long as I have been with Severus. Sure, we have our disagreements, but that only makes the whole thing more exciting. I guess that he is like an annoying brother, who always wants to have his will." Harry stood, not being able to sit still for any longer.

Standing, however, proved to be quite the mistake as it brought him quite close to Voldemort. The chair prevented him from moving backwards unless he wanted to fall. Voldemort took a step forward so that their chests were nearly touching each other.

Harry wordlessly cursed his adolescence body as it reacted to Voldemort's close presence. Luckily the man seemed to notice nothing as Harry shifted, making sure that his robe hid anything which could give away what was happening to his body.

"Severus will be occupied today."

"Oh?" Harry intrigued. He doubted that Voldemort had come down here to tell him that. Usually Severus would inform him personally or simply leave a message for him in their quarter.

"Yes." Voldemort said, dragged out the S', so he nearly slipped over in Parseltongue. Harry desperately hoped that the man didn't notice the shiver running down his spine. "You will be escorted to Diagon Ally today."

When Voldemort offered no other information Harry bit impatiently. "What do you mean with being escorted?" Voldemort's eyes flickered with something akin to amusement, but it was gone too fast for Harry to be sure if he really had seen it.

"I would have expected more from Severus' assistant. Surely you have not forgotten what we discussed yesterday. Or perhaps there was something which was distracting you at the time being." Voldemort leaned in as he spoke and for a moment Harry feared that the man would do something crazy, like kissing him. Instead Voldemort moved his head slightly so his mouth now was right beside Harry's ear.

"You guards will be waiting for you in the headmaster's office. I suggest that you do not let them wait for too long."

As Voldemort drew away Harry clenched his fists, fighting a strange urge to reach out and grab the man's robe before he could get out of reach.

Blushing Harry ran out of the library, Voldemort's laughter following him.

**)00(**

Down in the depths of the dungeon Severus found himself staring down at one Sirius Black, who was sitting on the ground with his back to the bars, not yet having noticed him. His thin lips curled into his trademark sneer as he took in the changes of his childhood enemy.

Once Sirius Black had belonged to the top of the pureblood supremacy, being the heir to the Black family. Though he had made it clear just what he thought of his family, Black hadn't hesitated to use his status to get whatever he wanted and lord it over less fortunate persons.

Even after he had decided to run away from his family, it had not changed. The Potters had been delighted to have another child they could spoil alongside their only child, James Potter.

Seeing him now, it was hard to believe that the man was the same who had tormented him in this very building. No one had bothered with allowing the man to be cleaned up after the dark lord had been done with him. But his injuries had been healed before Black had been placed in the cell for the night.

It didn't escape Severus' attention that Black spotted a broken nose which he had not had when he had been dragged out of the dark lord's office.

"Have you come here to gloat, Snivellius?" Hearing the hated nickname Severus was strongly tempted to curse the man. But he bit back the urge. He would have time to play with Black soon enough.

"No, but I have to admit how nice a sight it's to see you where you belong, Black." In his mind Severus congratulated to brat. Last night he had seen the blood on the boy's hand and viewing the memory he knew who he could thank for the injury on Black's face. "I've come to get some information from you."

There was fear in Black's eyes and Severus didn't bother with hiding his own smirk. It felt so good to have to roles changed around. "I already told you all I know of the Order and Dumbledore's plan." Severus sent a healing charm at the nose and watched as Black doubled over when the nose moved back to its original place.

"Don't think that I am doing this out of the goodness of my heart. It was merely more of an annoyance to hear you speak with a broken nose than usual. And we already know what we need about Dumbledore's so-called places. No, I'm here because of a certain brat who has been in my custody for the past five years." Severus calmly said, as he stepped out of reach when Black threw himself at the bars and grabbed after him.

"You bastard, what have you done to my godson!?" If not because he had viewed Harry's memory last night Severus would have been at a lost what the man meant.

Still, it gave him a good way to press the mutt for details. "I am afraid that I have no idea what you are talking about." The blasting charm sent Black to the far end of the cell, as far away from Severus as he could physically come.

Severus watched with satisfaction as Black crumbled to the floor after his collision with the wall.

The impact of the spell didn't keep Black down for long. "What I'm talking about! The fact that my godson acts nothing like James. He refused to help me out and he reminds me of a certain slimy Slytherin! It's all your fault!"

"Crucio." Severus watched the man collapse fully on the floor, writhing in pain and howling like a wounded dog. Not wanting to break the man just yet Severus ended the curse much sooner than he would have liked to. Black lay on the floor, twisting and gasping for air.

"You speak as if it is a sin for a child not to be an exact copy of its parents. I do wonder if that does also apply to you. Which one of your parents is it that you remind most of? Your father? Or perhaps it would rather be your mother. But haven't you spent most of your life denying that you are anything like most of the Blacks?" The look on Black's face was highly gratifying.

Severus felt no regret when he once again put Black under the Cruciatus curse. "Harry's gender should not matter to you, if you really care about the brat. And while I am delighted that he does not look like a twin of his own father, it is not something which I can take the honour for. Harry was tired of having a bird nest for hair, so he decided to let it grow to its current length. And the glasses were a hindrance when he assisted me with potions, so at his request I brewed a potion so he would be able to see without aids."

Severus ended the curse, and Black coughed harshly, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, making him look rather like some wild animal.

"The dark lord wants information about the brat and therefore, I have been given the privilege to drag as much information as possible out of the pea seized thing you call a brain. And the only thing which I am not allowed to do is killing you, which, I guess, will not be a problem at current time. Levicorpus."

When Black was hoisted into the air and dangled upside-down, Severus stepped inside the cell.

"I'm sure that you remember a similar incident back in school, only now the roles are reversed and you don't have those friends of you to back you up." As he spoke, Severus started circulating around Black in an almost lazy manner.

"It was the day I lost Lily. Because of one misspoken word in anger, she ended a long friendship." He came to stop behind Black and the mutt tried in vain to turn around and keep him in sight.

"Harry might have been my son if you four had not driven Lily away from me. Indirectly you signed her death warrant by letting her get married to Potter. But it didn't matter, the only ones who mattered to your group was you four, though I am sure that you never really counted Pettigrew with you. I wouldn't have been ashamed if my son had been a squib. I would have cared for him and let him stay where he belonged rather than sending him off to some muggles, so perhaps people would forget about him."

By the tenseness in Black's back muscles Severus would say that the man was close to snap. He only needed to put a little more pressure. "How does it feel to know that Harry hates you and James for everything he has been put through?" He whispered, making Black sound much louder when he started yelling.

"We did it to protect him. We knew that he would be more happy among people like himself, rather than seeing magic done around him all the time and know that he is different. Dumbledore promised that Harry would be safe!"

Severus rolled his eyes at the man's words. "Let me ask you a question. Was Harry unhappy when people did magic around him as a child? Wait, don't answer that. I'm sure that he laughed every time someone shoot bubbles from their wand or whenever a certain someone turned into a grim like dog and let him ride on their back." Each word made Black flinch as if Severus was using a whip instead of his tongue.

Severus however was on a roll and didn't consider to stop anytime soon. This was one of the people who had hurt his brat, simply because the boy was not able to use the magic he had. A rather humorous thought considering how much Black tried to stick out from the rest of his family. After all, hiding a squib away among muggles was something the Blacks had often done in the past.

"Don't you dare to claim that it was for the brat's own good that you send him away. No, you were ashamed because he couldn't use magic. You felt it like it was an offence to your pride as a wizard. Is that why you never bothered to check up on him later, no matter how safe Dumbledore assured you that he was." Severus ranted, and walked so he was in front of Black again.

When the animagus failed to deliver an answer Severus tisked. A quick move had Black's trousers shed to pieces and the undergarments got the same treatment. The Potions master raised a dark eyebrow. "I don't understand how you could be so popular among the female students back in school. However, your size, or rather the lack of the same, certainly explains why none of them stayed with you for long."

Severus spoke over Black as the man hurled curses at him. They didn't do much good since his wand had been confiscated upon capture. "If you want to have the chance to bed a woman again, I suggest that you start cooperating and answer my questions. Who did you send Harry to?"

"Dumbledore sent Harry to live with some of Lily's relatives, I never really found out which ones he spoke about. He also put up some blood wards to keep Harry safe from death eaters and dark creatures." Black used his hands to cover his manly bits, apparently believing that it would be enough to keep him safe.

Severus sneered. If nothing else this was a clear proof on how little they had cared about his brat. Before Severus had only guessed that no one had checked up on the brat, but now he had been confirmed. But the news about the blood wards was new to him.

While Black was correct that blood wards would have protected Harry from attacks from outsiders as long as he stayed in the house, it didn't keep the boy safe from those he lived with. Also, for the wards to work there would have to be warm feelings between those who shared blood. And as far as Severus knew the brat, there had been no love lost between Harry and those muggles he had lived with.

Having grown up in the same neighbourhood as Lily Severus knew that she had not had much family. That was one of the reasons Lily had wanted many children.

It was just a shame that she had decided to abandon the only child she'd gotten. But it shouldn't be too hard to track those relatives down Black had mentioned.

"What about when Harry was brought to the Order? Surely you took up the chance to get to know your godson. The only reminder you had of your deceased best friend and his wife." Severus asked, watching Black's facial expression carefully.

Black scowled, before his face turned red, almost as if he believed that Severus would not have noticed it. "I took off on a mission as soon as they were buried. When I came back three months later, Harry was already there. Someone sat me in on what had happened, telling me that prongslet was a seer and those visions could be used to our advantage in the war. Dumbledore had even found a way to make the visions come more frequently."

Severus had to close his eyes briefly to keep reign on his temper. The list of reasons why he hated Dumbledore seemed to grow all the time. And many of those reasons had a certain brat involved.

The potion Black mentioned had to been the one Draco had spoken about. Twice he had seen the after effect the potion had on the brat he had come to care about. Severus was a Potions master and worked with experimental potions, he knew the dangers of testing those on human subjects.

Even the dark lord had come to accept this, especially when it came to children.

And yet, since there was no one like Harry that he knew of, he didn't doubt that it was exactly what Dumbledore had done.

"He was a scrawny little thing back then. It didn't seem like he had been fed properly by the muggles, I don't think they had much money. He flinched at every sound and seemed to fear the touch of a human, as if he wasn't used to that kind of things. He was more like a wild animal than an actual human. I heard that he even bit one of his peers when he first arrived. Since then he had been kept away from other children."

A scowl darkened Severus' face. They had treated his brat, as if the boy had been non-human. And yet, Black seemed to wonder why Harry had reacted like he did. However, it were Black's next words which set Severus' anger of.

"If it wasn't for his visions, I would have recommended that we sent him to the mental ward at St. Mungos', at least they would have been able to deal with him."

"Sectumsempra." Severus made wide movements with his wand, watching as deep gashes appeared mainly on Black's chest. The man screamed, trying to twist his body as if it would make him escape the curse Severus held him under.

All too soon, after Severus' opinion at least, he ended the curse. It was one he had made back in his school years, with Potter and Black in his mind as he came up with it. If it hadn't been because Dumbledore unfairly favoured the Gryffindors Severus would only too gladly have lived his dream out and used the curse on the two lions back then.

"I am the godfather to a boy who is only a few months older than your godson." Severus continued as he ignored Black's mutters about how no one in their right mind would make a greasy git godfather for their child.

"When the parents ask us to take such a position we agree to care, guide and be there for their child. No matter how I look at it, you failed to fulfil that promise, Black."

If Draco had been in Harry's place Severus wouldn't have cared for what anyone else said. As soon as he would have heard rumours about his godson being sent away to live among muggles because of people being ashamed of the child, he would have taken Draco and left. Never in his life would he have allowed it to go as far as it had with Harry.

When it became clear that Black had nothing more to tell, Severus swirled his wand slowly, thinking about what he should do next. "Did you know that in the manhood there is a great deal of nerves? It is, so you can get such pleasures during intercourse with another person, though I shudder at the thought of you being involved in such a thing. It makes it sensitive to even the smallest things done to it. Can you imagine the pain it would bring to have it skinned?"

It was a pleasure to see how Black paled. "You are making fun, right? You promised that you wouldn't do anything to little Sirius."The mutt squealed in a rather high tone.

"I have to agree to the little part. But if you bother to think back you will recall that I only promised that I would not kill you. What I have in mind for you will not kill you, but you will need some assistance from a healer. Do try to keep up. I rather dislike having to repeat myself." And while such an injury could be healed Severus doubted that Black would be alive long enough for that to happen.

It didn't take long before high pained screams filled the corridors in the dungeon

**)00(**

Dragging his feet proved to not slow him down as much as he had hoped for. All too soon Harry walked through the opening the gargoyle revealed as he came near it. And he let the moving stairs take him all the way up to the door.

Harry felt like he was heading towards his own death. At any time he would have been exited at the prospect of seeing Diagon Ally. However, being escorted by the Lestranges had never been included in those plans and it effectively killed the joy he would otherwise have felt.

Deciding to forego procedures Harry opened the door. With a lowered head, so his hair shielded his face, Harry stepped inside the headmaster's office. Seeing the red beam fly towards him Harry jumped to the ground. He winced when his shoulder took off most of his fall, but got on his feet again in a matter of seconds.

A loud crackling drew Harry's attention to the spell's caster. Bellatrix Lestrange was standing on the opposite side of the room. The only reason to why no more attacks had come was because her husband had had enough sense to confiscate her wand before she could manage to do any real damage.

"Rodolphus, let me have a little fun, it has been a long time since I made someone dance."

Clearly being used to her whining none of the wizards gave in to the female's whining. "Mr. Potter, are you ready to leave?" Surprised at the not so unfriendly tone Harry could only nod at the oldest Lestrange's question. "Good, now we will floo to Diagon Ally, I assume that you have tried flooing before."

Wondering where his voice had disappeared to, Harry shook his head. Maybe he had flooed when he had still lived with his parents. But here he hadn't had a reason to leave Hogwarts farther than his own legs could carry him.

A resigned expression was painted on Rabastan's face. "All you have to do is to take a handful of floo powder and throw it into the flames. When they turn green you can step into the fireplace and state your destination. Make sure that you speak clearly, or it's not to know which fireplace you'll emerge from."

"I will go first." Bellatrix had managed to grab her wand from her husband while the two brothers had been talking to Harry. The witch threw the floo powder around her, and barely waited for the flames to turn green before she had jumped into them. "Diagon Ally!" She winked at Harry and then she was gone.

"I better follow her. The dark lord will not be happy about another damage report from the shopkeepers because my dear wife was left too long without supervision." With that Rodolphus followed after his wife, leaving Harry alone with Rabastan.

Not waiting for the man to try and force him into the fire, Harry copied what he had seen the two other Lestranges do. However, while speaking Harry breathed in a mouthful of ash and he hacked through the words.

When Harry was spit out after a ride where it felt like he had been thrown around he landed as a pile of limbs on the hard floor. Groaning softly he opened his eyes. It was clear that he was not in the Leaky Cauldron, where he knew he was supposed to have come out. Not unless the owner had decided to redecorate his establishment.

Harry picked himself up from the floor and looked down himself with a grimace. Ash and dust covered his robes, making it look like some child had dried their hands in it after playing with different shades of grey paint.

Most of the light in the small shop came from the lamps over his head. The windows were too dirty to let much light pass through them, and Harry could see oddly shaped shapes move past outside on the street.

He should probably leave before anyone noticed that he was there.

Harry managed to take three steps before something caught his attention. A shrivelled hand on top of a dusty pillow stood out among the blood-stained pack of cards and a staring glass eye. Harry decided to ignore the evil looking masks that stared down at him from the walls.

"What are you doing here?" Quickly Harry took his hand back and turned around so he didn't have his back turned towards the speaker. A small man with grey tufts around his ears and nearly no eyes came around the counter.

The man's smile dimmed when he got close enough to see that Harry's robes were not just dirty, but also the grey colour the robe had. "Has your master sent you here to buy something from my fine edifice? Perhaps the Hand of Glory has caught your master's interest. It gives light only to the holder." By now all false friendliness had disappeared from the man's voice.

Harry's eyes flickered to the man's wand before they returned to his face. "Sorry but no, you see I took the floo but I think I ended in the-"

"Out, get out you filth. I don't want your kind in my shop. Be gone or I shall give you something to be sorry about!" Already the man was reaching for something. Harry felt that it was in his best interest to not stay long enough to see what the shop owner had planned and he sprinted for the door.

He nearly crashed into the door, managing to grab the handle and open the door while something broke next to him.

Harry hurried down the street, not caring about where he was going, as long as he got away from the angry wizard.

When he no longer could hear the loud yells, Harry allowed himself to slow down and wasted a moment to straighten his robe and his hair.

One thing Harry knew for sure, this was not Diagon Ally. Through the shop windows he could see poisonous candles, shrunken heads, human-looking finger nails, and many other things.

Harry doubted very much that parents would take their children with them to buy school supplies here. And the more Harry looked the more Harry doubted that one would be able to find said school supplies. Not unless they were hidden among the dunks of vampire and unicorn blood and there werewolf fangs.

"Knockturn Ally." Harry breathed out, barely able to believe where he was.

Quickly Harry went to the far side of the ally and lowered his head so his face was shielded by his hair. There was nothing he could do about his robes. But maybe people would be too busy to pay him any mind and just assume that he was some stray kid who wore dirty robes?

But there was no way of denying that he wore the specific shade of grey robes that squibs were forced to wear.

Not wanting to stay too long in one place, in case that someone should start noticing him, Harry headed in the direction he hoped that Diagon Ally would be.

Severus visited Knockturn Ally to buy ingredients which he could not gather on his own. It was one of the few chores the Potions master had refused to hand over to Harry. The reason given was that Severus didn't trust Harry to not be cheated by the salesman, because he wouldn't be able to pick the good ingredients from the bad ones.

Now Harry understood that Severus had been protecting him.

Even as he walked with his head down, Harry could feel the way people's eyes went to him. It made him walk faster, while he avoided bumping into the bodies of those who had yet to notice him.

When Harry was grabbed by his shoulder, he knew that today just wasn't his lucky day. His body protested when his arm was twisted around in such a manner that Harry was sure that his shoulder would pop out of its socket.

He was showed up against a wall and felt his chin be scraped against the bricks. "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" The tone the male behind him spoke with, reminded Harry a little too much of the way Bellatrix had sounded on New Year's Eve.

Perhaps the man was a pureblood, though from the smell of it, he wasn't that wealthy. After all, weren't purebloods supposed to be related to each other in one way or another?

"A little squib, all on his lonesome." Harry grimaced as spittle flew around as the man spoke.

Kicking out Harry scowled when he found his legs trapped between the man's. "Let me go." He squirmed but found that he could not move much. The free hand he had was used to support his weight against the wall. "Already begging so nicely, and I've not even started playing with you."

Unlike when he had been with Voldemort, Harry felt nothing but disgust at the man's close presence. "You're mistaken. It was an order, and if you know what is best for you, you'll do as said." Not a moment after the words had left his mouth Harry found his head slammed into the wall so bright stars were dancing in front of his eyes.

"I'll learn you where you place is, freak of nature." A hiss of pain left his lips as Harry's head was banged into the wall by the hand fisting his tresses.

Harry attempted to yank his head free, but the only thing he got for that effort was losing a few of his hairs. "It is teach. If you are going to make threats, at least make sure that you do it correctly. Or else people will just laugh at you." This time Harry was prepared when his head collided with the hard surface.

Something wet and warm started running down his cheek and Harry didn't need to open his eyes to know that it was blood.

"Crucio!"

Instead of the pain Harry had expected to hit him, he was surprised to find that the body behind him suddenly disappeared.

His legs refused to carry his weight, and Harry simply sat down on the ground, uncaring about the trash and dirt surrounding him. Groaning he placed his thundering head between his hands, trying to figure out what had just happened.

He had heard the curse being cast, and yet he was not in pain, other than what was caused by the damage done to his head.

Also, he was pretty sure that the man had not suddenly turned into a female, so why was it that he had heard a woman's voice?

Finally Harry felt like his head would not split into two when he lifted it to see what was going on.

He was not really surprised to see that a small crowd had gathered to see what was going on. However, at the moment their attention was on someone else than Harry, which he was grateful for.

The man, or rather what was left of him, was lying on the ground. Apparently someone had used more than just the Cruciatus, though he had not managed to register it.

Over the leftovers of the man, Bellatrix was standing, a mad grin lighting up her face that made her look frightening and probably also beautiful to some. She was nearly jumping from one foot to another, crackling with open glee, her wand ready in case that she got more excuses to use it on anyone.

A hand touched his shoulder and Harry berated himself when he flinched away from it and any incoming attacks which might follow.

Catching himself before he could do something more embarrassingly, Harry craned his neck back enough to look at the somewhat concerned face of Rabastan, which was hovering over him.

"I have to check if you have a concussion, so stay still, unless you want to lose an eye." It didn't sound very reassuring to Harry, but he let the wizard wave his wand over his head anyway.

Bellatrix was almost pouting as she looked down at the mess she had left. However, her eyes lit up when they landed on Harry and he felt a weedy urge to run for cover as she came over to them.

"Ity, little Harry is from now on my favourite squib. I promise I'll take you out for daily walks if you keep getting me such entertainment." The woman's change of mood made Harry stare at her warily.

Harry, who had just stood, found slender arms around his neck in a bone crunching hug. It annoyed him, that Bellatrix, though not being a tall witch, was still taller than him by half a head.

The witch cooed over him even after she had let go. In an almost doting manner she cleaned his face of blood with her handkerchief. Well, at least that was what Harry hoped. She might as well be spreading the blood all over his face for all Harry knew. "Bellatrix you can drag him around after we have done something about the wound."

Harry dodged when Bellatrix pointed her wand at it. "If it is the same to you, can't we just find something to cover it with? I am standing and seeing straight, so it can't be that serious. And head wounds often bleed worse than they really are." Harry believed he knew what he was talking about. He still remembered how much the wound he had carved into his own forehead had bled.

Though he knew that Bellatrix was one hell of a witch, he didn't feel the need to see if she was as good in healing as she was when it came to fighting. The wound could wait until he was back at Hogwarts and could drink some potion or other to get rid of it.

At one of the brother's nod Harry nearly whooped in joy. Instead he accepted an enlarged and clean handkerchief and bound it around his head with a slight grimace. "That can't do. Not at all." Bellatrix exclaimed, pointing at Harry forehead. A white light shot from her wand and Harry felt the handkerchief shift and change. Touching it Harry came to the conclusion that it had been transformed into a bandage.

He didn't quite manage to get his hand down, before the woman was hugging his neck again, making it hard for him to breathe.

It was rather worrying how the woman shifted between saneness and insanity.

Rodolphus cleaned him of dirt and blood magically, making his grey robes stand out like a sore spot. "Let go of him, Bellatrix, unless you want to explain to the dark lord why someone we were meant to watch suffocated by your hands, again." He said, eyeing the crowd which had slowly started to part seeing that noting more of interest was happening. It could also have something to do with how the two males looked ready to curse the one who first opened their mouth.

Bellatrix let go of him, mumbling something which sounded like spoilsport, and Harry sucked in a grateful breath, filling his lungs with much needed air.

Harry let himself be led to Diagon Ally, walking between Rabastan and Rodolphus, feeling dwarfed by the two men and strangely enough also safe. Bellatrix was walking a little ahead, making way for them, which she did with open glee.

Diagon Alley was quite a different experience from Knockturn Alley. It was bustling with life and the noise was on a whole other level than the hushed tone in its twin Alley. People walked a circle around their small group, as if fearing what would happen if they came too close. Considering who he was with, Harry supposed that it was not really a surprise.

"Can we go to Gringotts?" Harry realised, that no one had told him what the purpose of this little trip was. However, he planned on using this opportunity to see if he could gain access to the Potter vault. If not, he would have to think of something else he could bargain with.

Harry received no verbal answer to his question, but he noticed the slight change in course which he guessed meant yes.

Gringotts proved to be an imposing, snow white marble building with multiple storeys. With the trio he walked up the set of white stairs which led them directly to a set of burnished bronze doors. Harry glanced at the goblin in a uniform of scarlet and gold, which was flanking the door. However, it let them pass with a sneer in their general direction.

Harry stepped into a marble hall, with long counters stretching along its legs with a door he guessed led to the vault passageway. Around a hundred goblins were sitting behind those counters, with lines of wizards and witches standing in front of them, waiting to be served.

Bellatrix passed the waiting line, leaving Harry and the two wizards to follow in her leave. Though impressed with what he was seeing, Harry's gaze stayed mostly on the floor.

He could feel the hostile stares of those who had been waiting for their turn to come. And since they didn't dare to take their annoyance out on his companions Harry was the next best choice.

Nonchalantly Bellatrix showed the next witch out of the line and force Harry to stand in front of her.

Behind the counter a short and dark skinned creature was sitting. Its long fingers were curled around a quill. To Harry the pointy nose reminded him of an arrow, ready to shoot him down in the matter of seconds if he made as much as a wrong move.

At this disturbance the goblin sneered at him, or perhaps it was just its people's way of greeting others. "May our dealings be profitable for both parts." Harry said, remembering how Severus had instructed him on how to greet a goblin, in case that he should ever face one.

"And may your vaults be overflowing with gold, Mr. Potter." Hearing his name, Harry's head snapped up and he stared wide eyed at the goblin, who was waiting to hear what he wanted.

"I wanted to know if there are any vaults which I have access to." Harry voice was nothing more than a low whisper. So much depended on the goblin's answer. Other than himself it was the only bargain ship Harry had when he would deal with the dark lord.

The goblin regarded him for a moment. "Go through the door behind me, and find door number 4561, there a goblin will be waiting for you. You are not allowed to bring any guests with you." Harry could only nod, knowing that it would turn worst for him if he tried to go against the goblin.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." He said over his shoulder, knowing that he would be heard. Harry slipped behind the counter and through the door. Hopefully the hall would still be there when he returned.

In the small corridor Harry found himself, there was an unnatural amount of doors for such a small space. But if there was one thing Harry had learned by living in the Wizarding world it was that the most impossible thing was often possible. Even when it came to put many doors somewhere, where there logically should not be space for them.

The door he stood in front of, had a golden number one painted on it. Sighing Harry started walking, figuring that he was in for a long walk. It didn't take long before Harry realised that there was no logic in the way the numbers on the doors appeared. Perhaps it was to make sure that people could not just sneak in and listen on the doors.

Or perhaps the goblins just enjoyed confusing the hell out of their customers.

Longer down the corridor a door opened, seemingly by its own. Interest peeked Harry headed towards it, at the very least he could ask the ones inside how much farther he was supposed to go.

"Mr. Potter, I've been waiting for you." A quick glance at the door told Harry that he had finally found the correct place.

Inside the room an ancient looking goblin was sitting behind an oak desk. On the side closes to Harry and opposite to the goblin a single chair was standing. "Hey?" Harry said as he sat down on the chair. The door closed behind him and Harry folded his hands in his lap. As it was there was not much he could do other than wait to hear why he had been ordered here.

The goblin stifled through some papers with a too tiny scrawl on them for Harry to see what they said before it looked back at him. "I'm Ragnok and I have been manager of the Potter vault since your great grandfather was around. Are you aware of how much trouble you have caused me?"

"Sorry?" Harry said, trying to figure out just in what way he had managed to get in trouble despite it being the first time he visited the bank.

Ragnok nodded. "Apology accepted. Now before we go on to the important matters, there are certain facts you will need to know."

At that Harry leaned forward in the chair, interested in hearing what the goblin could have to say.

"Your father, the late James Potter was the sole heir to the Potter fortune, which generations of Potters had used their lives to gather. However, when your father started at Hogwarts, you grandfather, Lord Charlus Potter, came to me for help. Already from an early age Mr. James Potter had showed no interest in adding more money to the fortune, and seemed intent to use what was in the vaults. While it's not uncommon behaviour for a young pureblood from a rich family, your grandfather was concerned what would happen to the money once he passed away."

With the stories Severus had told him, Harry could imagine his father strut around like a peacock and flaunt his riches. "What did he do?" Harry asked, feeling eager to learn something about a man he had never gotten to know.

"Your grandfather had a special vault was created for your father. Every month a specific amount would be transferred to your father's vault, he would suffer but neither would he be able to have the lifestyle he apparently expected."

The more Harry heard of this grandfather of his, the more Harry was sure that he would have liked the man, had he been alive.

"He got a raise when he left Hogwarts and started living on his own. And even after his death the late Lord Potter did it so another raise came when Mr. Potter got married and then again when you were born."

Harry frowned, finally voicing something which had been bothering. "You call my grandfather Lord Potter and my father Mr. Are there any reason for that?"

"Your grandfather was the last Lord Potter. When he passed away your parents had already joined the Order of the Phoenix. And though we at Gringotts pride ourselves of being neutral in wizards' matters the dark lord does not allow known rebels to walk in here and claim their fortune."

His eyes met beetle black orbs from across the desk. "What happened to the Potter family vault?" Harry didn't dare to get his hopes up, not yet anyway.

"The Potter vault hasn't been entered since your grandfather's death. Your father's vault is still receiving its monthly amount since you are still not off age." The goblin pushed a paper over to him and after a short hesitation Harry picked it up. Looking at the numbers Harry felt like someone had punched him in the gut.

If this was what was considered necessary to keep a minimalistic life, Harry didn't want to think about what could be inside the Family vault.

Of course, if no one had touched the money since his parents' deaths, it was no surprise that a small fortune had been gathered in the vault. Reading through the list Harry had to hold back a long string of curse words, deciding that Ragnok wouldn't appreciate to hear his opinion.

Harry had spent his earliest childhood with his mother's muggle relatives. One thing he remembered rather clearly, was how his Uncle had complained about the costs of having another child, and a freak to that, under his roof.

From what Harry could remember, when Wizarding money was changed into those the muggles used, his uncle had had no reason to complain. The money donated to them was more than enough to cover the expenses he should have given them.

It felt weird to see a proof on, that though his parents had abandoned him, they might not entirely have stopped caring for him.

Harry squashed the thought before it was able to root. His parents had made it clear how little they cared for him, when they'd abandoned him. They had been so ashamed over his non existing magic, that they had left him at the Dursleys doorstep the same night as they had gotten the news. Though eighteen months were not much he could easily have awoken and walked off, or have been attacked by some wild animal.

No, his parents had only given the Dursley money to sooth their own consciousness. They had not cared for him.

"So, you need to be the lord to get into the Potter vault? Is it possible for me to become one?" Harry waited with baited breath for the goblin's answer, doing his best not to fidget.

"An interesting question. Normally squibs are hidden away in the muggle world, or there have been other heirs to take the title as lord or lady of the family."

Starting to feel a little desperate Harry decided to try a new approach, hoping that the goblin's answer would be positive. "But I am not really a squib." Before Ragnok could open his mouth, probably to accuse him of lying, Harry continued.

"I went through the tests for squibs a few years back in the Ministry. And while my results were similar to that of a squib, technically speaking I am not one. I have magic, but all of it is directed towards one area, and so I can't do magic." Harry ended his rushed explanation, waiting for Ragnok's response.

Ragnok watched him with a calculating expression. "There's a ward around the room that register any lies you tell. Since it hasn't reacted I'll assume that you are telling the truth, or at least what you believe it to be. Otherwise, you would not have been sitting in that chair right now." Harry swallowed, not even wanting to start wondering what Ragnok's words could mean.

"But if you really have magic, you should be able to, as the last scion of the Potter House, to claim the lordship." To Harry it sounded too good to be true. At the same time he wanted to laugh. This was the perfect way to get back on those who had looked down on him. But perhaps he should rather keep the title a secret. He wouldn't want to attach more attention to himself than he had already managed to do.

In front of him a bowl with a clear substance appeared with a knife next to it. "You need to put three droplets of blood into the bowl." Was the only explanation he received.

Picking up the knife Harry weighted. It was different from the knives he usually handled when working with potions. From the quality and decorations on it, Harry would take a guess, and say that it was goblin made.

Harry shifted his hold on the knife before he used the end to pick a small hole on his finger. He held his finger over the bowl and let precisely three drops fall down in the potion before he moved his hand away.

Time spent with Severus had taught him the danger of adding too much to a potion, especially when it was one he'd never worked with before.

Knowing that Severus would want every detail when he heard of this Harry watched the potion with apt attention. As if stirred by an invisible hand the blood mixed with the potion, turning the contest soft pink.

The potion started pulling itself together while hardening. Its colour changed from pink to something golden. Harry swore he only blinked for a short moment, and yet the whole process was over when he opened his eyes again.

There was no trace of the potion left in the bowl. In its place a ring lay instead. After glancing at Ragnok for confirmation Harry picked up the ring for closer inspection.

The ring did indeed seem to be made of gold, not that Harry was an expert in that area, but he doubted that he was wrong. The ring was decorated with a picture of a stag made in white gold, and the jewellery felt quite heavy in his hand.

"The Potter ring. Congratulation is in place, I believe, Lord Potter. I hope that you will do your grandfather proud." Dumbly Harry nodded. He placed the ring on his right ringfinger and watched as it shrunk until it fit his finger perfectly. "Would you like to go to the Potter family vault now?" Ragnok intrigued.

Harry detached his eyes from the ring. "Thanks, but that'll have to wait for another day. But I would like to take some money from my parents' vault." Barely had the words left his mouth before Ragnok had produced a small, black pouch made of leather of some kind.

"With this one you'll not have to go here every time you run out of money. It's theft proof since your touch is required to get anything out of it. You will just stick your hand into it and the needed amount of money will transfer directly from your vault and into your hand. It can be yours, for a small fee of course." With that Ragnok pushed to the black pouch, so it was on the desk, halfway between the two of them.

"How much?" I his mind the pouch was already his. It would give him more independence than what he'd so far. He wouldn't have to depend on Severus or someone else if he needed something. Or at least he would be able to pay them back for their help.

"Eleven galleons and seven knuts." It was more than even most wands cost, Harry knew that. And yet he stuck his hand down in the pouch. When he took his hand out again it was with the correct amount of money.

"Deal." The money disappeared as soon as they were handed over to Ragnok.

Harry stuffed the pouch down in a pocket and stood. "I hope that other dealings between us in the future will be just as profitable." Harry felt that he would do best to hurry up.

He had already left the Lestranges on their own for long enough. It wouldn't surprise him if they had blown half of Gringotts to pieces in his absence.

The way back went much faster than it had felt when he had been searching for the door.

When he stepped back in the Main Hall Harry was surprised to see that Gringotts still seemed to be in one piece.

Curly hair filled his view as Bellatrix appeared in front of him, seemingly out of nowhere. "There you are, squib. Haven't your parents taught you, that you should never let a lady wait? Now off we go, the dark lord has ordered that you need a whole new wardrobe."

Harry tried to dig his heals into the ground as Bellatrix dragged off with him. This was not what he had imagined would be the reason to why he would be allowed to go to Diagon Alley.

**So, opinions?**

**Next: The Slytherins try to teach Harry how to dance, and there is another trip to Gringotts, this time to the Potter family vault.**

**Dreams and Nightmares is written by Known Continuum**

**If you like that one you could also try and read Hell Hath No Fury» by puppyblue.**

**Both are good stories, but unfortunately none of them have been updated in a while.**

**Until next time.**


	7. Chapter 7

**I managed to fall down the stairs, so right now I have my arm in a sling because I damaged my shoulder and can basically not move my arm. This means that writing will go slower until my shoulder is okay again.**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**Beta: angelhitomie**

It became February and Harry's life had fallen back into its old pattern. He would wake up, eat breakfast and then start on whatever task Severus had planned for him.

And yet, the pattern had changed from what Harry was used to.

Nearly every day up to lunch Draco had taken it on himself to show up and drag off with Harry, regardless of what he had been doing.

Apparently it wasn't healthy to ditch a meal, who knew?

The seer didn't bother to look up when the door to the laboratory was opened. He merely held up a ginger, signalling that he would be done in a moment. A sigh and the ruffle of shoes told Harry that Draco had gotten the message.

With his tongue peeking out between his lips Harry turned back to counting the stirs, seven clockwise and than one counter-clockwise, before he repeated the process.

Blindly Harry reached out until his hand found the crushed rose pedals. Between two fingers he took a pinch and added the powder between the stirring.

Seeing the potion turn from bright yellow to a mother-of-pearl sheen, Harry stepped back and placed the stirrer on a nearby working table. "That is Amortentia."

Draco's voice caused Harry to jump in surprise. He had successfully forgotten about Draco in the short time it had taken him to finish the potion. "Severus said that he would show it as an example to his sixth year students." Harry answered while he cleaned his hands in a towel. "Any reason to why you are here?"

At the extravagated sigh escaping Draco's lips Harry shifted. How was it, that even without words Draco could make him feel guilty for something he wasn't sure what it was?

"Seriously Scarhead, sometimes I believe that you truly are a hopeless case. By now you should have gotten used to that we eat lunch together. You're thin enough as it is. If you lose any more weight even a small wind will be able to knock you off your feet. And that's what will happen if you skip meals."

Ducking his head at the reprimand Harry took the cauldron of the fire, knowing that the potion would have to cool down before it could be bottled. "Shall we get going?" Harry paused at the ridiculous look he received from Draco. "What?"

The blond glanced towards the ceiling and Harry was sure that he heard mutters about a hopeless case. Then the grey eyes were back at him. "You can't seriously mean that you are going out in that outfit." As if to emphasize what he meant, Draco pointed one pale finger on the middle of Harry's chest.

"Well, I... you see." Harry's search for something to say stopped when Draco grabbed his arm and started dragging off with him. Wondering what was going on, Harry allowed Draco to lead and followed him inside his and Severus' quarters.

Only in front of the closed door to Harry's room did Draco stop. The blond sent him a gaze, somehow transferring his sudden uneasiness to Harry. Despite how long they had known each other only two could say that they had been in Harry's room since he had started living in there.

Harry, because he lived in the room, and then also Severus.

There had simply never been a reason to why he should take anyone in there. The room was his sanctuary.

And yet, Harry found his hands gesturing for Draco to open the door before his mind had come to a decision.

Draco pushed the door open before Harry could change his mind and he followed the Slytherin instead. "It's... clean." Harry looked around, trying to see the room with Draco's eyes. Something in Draco's tone of voice suggested that this wasn't what Draco wanted to say when he had seen the room.

The room was bare for knickknacks, it was small and lacked a personal touch. It was probably very different from what Draco was used to at his home.

Harry simply shrugged. "When I first got the room, I didn't want anything personal here. To me, this was too good to be true and I didn't want to get attached to anything here because I knew that I would not continue. Later I simply saw no reason to start on it."

He sat down on the edge of his bed, watching as Draco went for the closet.

Because of the amount of clothes he had returned with from Diagon Alley, Severus had had to place an expansion charm on the closet to make sure that there was enough space for everything.

"How can you stand this? There is no order in this mess. It's not sorted by colour, comfort and since you've worn none of this I can say that you haven't placed it by how much you like wearing them." Harry rolled his eyes upwards, praying for patience from whoever might be listening.

"One positive thing is that you at least haven't mixed your new robes with the old rags." Draco's muttering continued as the pureblood dug through Harry's closet. He made an appreciating sound whenever he found something which fell in his taste, while other robes were passed without as much as a glance.

Having gathered what he needed Draco turned around to face him. "Here is what I've chosen for you to wear. It is a relief that you followed the list Pansy and I made, especially considering who you were in company with." Draco said while passing the clothes over to Harry.

When Draco just stood there, Harry tilted his head towards the door, hoping that Draco would get the hint. Seeing that it was not the case, he rubbed his temporal with his free hand. "If I'm going to change it'll not be with you in the room." He said, dropping the clothes on the bed and then he crossed his arms to prove his point.

"Honestly, Harry, it's not like you have something I haven't already seen. Besides, I am already courting Astoria, so you don't belong in my dating category." When Harry refused to bulge, Draco threw up his hands. "Fine. I'll wait for you outside. But don't take too long or I might decide that you need my help."

Only when the door had closed and he was alone did Harry move. He didn't doubt for even a moment that Draco wouldn't go through with his threat. He shred the grey robe he had been wearing, folding and placing it on the back of his chair. Then he turned his attention to the clothes Draco had chosen for him to wear.

As Draco had correctly guessed Harry hadn't bothered to wear any of the new clothes. But running his hands over the soft cloth Harry meowed at the feeling of it against his skin.

Hearing Draco move around on the other side of the door, Harry knew that he should better get moving. He pulled the robe over his head and used his hands to smooth out any wrinkles there might be. The cloth felt smug against his body and if not for the cuts he'd made so that he could move his legs freely, Harry was sure that he would have felt suffocated.

The robe Draco had chosen for him was green as the early summer leaves. Harry glanced down himself, gnawing on his lower lip. It was strange to wear such a cheerful colour after having worn nothing but grey since he first returned to the Wizarding world.

Before Harry could decide whether or not he should change back into his old robe, Draco was in his room. The pureblood paused one step inside, his grey eyes wandered up Harry's body with approval. When they reached Harry's eyes Draco smirked. "You are nearly done. The robe looks great on you, but we really need to do something about your hair. You can't always wear it in a braid. It makes you look too girly."

Harry's hand closed protectively around his braid. Seeing his defensive stance Draco backed a step. "Aright, keep the braid. But don't come running to me when a bloke mistakes you for a girl." A strange glint entered Draco's eyes. "Scratch that, if anyone approach you like that, you'll come directly to me or one of the other Slytherins I've introduced you to, and we will take care of it."

Harry rolled his eyes, muttering a low 'yes mum, should I also hold your hand in the corridor?' under his breath.

If Draco heard what he said the Slytherin made no indication of it.

Out in the corridor Harry fell in step with Draco. "I had originally planned that we would be dining outside today, but unfortunate circumstances prevent that."

As they passed a window Harry understood what Draco meant. The sky was covered by dark clouds and a heavy rain was falling. No student in their right mind would be out in such a weather, which explained why he could spot some Gryffindors playing around.

"Who is the one with Malfoy?" The loud whisper nearly made Harry turn to look at the speaker. A not quite touch from Draco got Harry on better thoughts, though it didn't stop him from frowning lightly.

Since he was the only one walking with Draco, Harry was pretty sure that it was him they were speaking about. But even the first years knew who or rather what he was after their first month at school, if not sooner.

Harry doubted that a fifth year Ravenclaw had forgotten about him when said person had tried to trip him down the staircases a few weeks prior.

Feeling the surveillance he was under, Harry decided to keep his confusion to himself, at least for now. When they were somewhere more private he could ask Draco what this was about.

Harry found himself following Draco to an unused classroom. At the current moment the place didn't look much like somewhere one would choose to teach in. The few desks in the room had been pushed together, already bearing what Harry believed was being served in the Great Hall for the students.

Around the small group of desks, Draco's friends were already seated.

Vincent and Gregory were eating, grunting a brief greeting before they turned back to their food. Blaise and Pansy were sitting as close together as their chairs would allow and Harry was sure that Theodore could be found somewhere behind the big tome which blocked one of the chairs from view.

Harry and Draco took the last two seat, the ones which were facing the door. Breathing in the smell of food, Harry felt his mouth water. He had had a light breakfast this morning and before now he'd not realised how hungry he was. Harry grabbed a sandwich from a nearby plate.

"So Harry, what are you going to wear?" Growling lightly under his breath Harry placed the sandwich on his plate before he turned to Pansy, who sat by his left.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

The witch smiled at him. "What robes do you plan on wearing at the Ministry ball? It's only three days away. I intended to ask you sooner, but I was so caught up in making sure that Blaise and I are wearing matching robes, that it simply slipped my mind."

Draco cut in before Harry could gather his thoughts enough to form an answer to Pansy's question which would not make him look like some kind of an idiot. "Well, at least Harry doesn't have to worry about wearing matching ropes, since he is not going to accompany a partner. I tell you, Astoria has been hanging in every little detail about our dress robes. I have reached the point where I'm ready to just let her handle it on her own, so I can get some peace." Draco said with a huff.

Harry only listened with one ear. While he had known that another ball was upcoming, it wasn't something he had wasted any thoughts on.

"I'm not attending." Harry said, taking a bite of his sandwich. The sudden silence that followed his statement, made Harry look up from his food. "What?" He asked after having swallowed what was in his mouth.

"Scarhead, you can't stay away. I heard my father inform Severus that you are to go. Personally I think that the dark lord will use the opportunity to introduce you to the higher class in pureblood society and the Ministry workers. You can't stay away."

Pansy jumped in as soon as Draco was done speaking. "Think of all the fun we'll have. I can introduce you to girls, and we can speak about the robes the others are wearing. And you'll have to reserve at least one dance for me. With the looks of yours and the right dress robe people will be flocking around you in hope of being grazed with your attention, if only for a short while." The girl let out a dreamy sigh.

Apparently Blaise found it necessary to interrupt before Pansy could say more, which Harry was thankful for. It felt like all her talking made his head spin. "Easy, il mio amore. If you continue like that I might think that you are looking for another boyfriend. I insist that you at least have half of your dances with me." He sealed his words with a kiss on her cheek.

"I can't dance." Harry placed his half eaten sandwich back on the plate, feeling that he wouldn't get to eat the rest of it.

"What do you mean?" Draco asked as if Harry had admitted that he had killed Salazar Slytherin.

Harry shrugged, watching the blond. "There has never been a reason or a chance for me to learn. I mean, who in their right mind would allow a squib to attend such a thing? After coming here, I learned that squibs are not allowed to attend ball hoisted by purebloods. And before that, I can't recall something like a ball being hold."

Not that he would have taken part in any entertainment the Order had arranged. And the Dursleys would sooner have let him roam freely around in their house than take him with them to such a thing.

"That will not do. You'll be the night's laughing stock if it comes out that you can't dance." Before Harry could explain to the only girl in the group that it would be no problem, since he really didn't plan on going, he found himself yanked to his feet by her. For one so small Pansy sure knew how to drag around people.

Perhaps she and Draco had taken lessons together?

"Dance is an important part of every ball. You'll be watched by people since you are a new face and it'll be the first time you will be attending. They'll try and judge if you are worth their time. It is also a good opportunity to learn new gossip and spot eventual future partners." While she spoke Pansy arranged Harry's hands so one was resting just above her hip and the other one was holding her left one.

Pansy's right hand was resting on his left shoulder, the touch so light that Harry had to glance sideways to see if the hand was actually there.

Satisfied with his posture Pansy carried on. "Now, it's important to remember that the male always leads the dance. But since you're new to this, I'll guide you. When you have gotten the hang on it, perhaps I will let you lead. Oh, and Potter, please do refrain from stepping on my toes, I have just had a pedicure and I would hate to hex you because you destroyed it. Blaise, music, we will start with a waltz. Move your right foot."

Harry moved as ordered, feeling overwhelmed as Pansy continued to instruct him on what to do. He started sweating feeling the others watch them. How was he supposed to do this at a ball, when he was getting nervous in a little setting like this?

Harry's head surged up when sharp nails pinched his should. Pansy smiled innocently at him. "Stop staring at your feet. You're never going to learn it that way. During the dance it is rude to look away from your partner, and you are supposed to speak with her. Make her feel like the centre of your universe. And if you place your foot there, remember that I'm not above to hex you into the next week."

Harry, who had been about to place his foot down, let it change direction and used the move to spin Pansy around. The witch let out a loud squeal of delight. "A little unusual, but that way you did avoid any embarrassing accidents. Well done."

Managing a weak smile Harry's eyes glanced quickly down to see how their feet were moving before his eyes were back on Pansy. "Thanks for teaching me this." Mumbled Harry.

Another pinch made Harry yelp and glare. The moment was enough to make him falter before Pansy forced him back into the dance. "When you speak, you should show confidence. No one will respect you, if you sound like a mouse instead of a man. And don't even think about complaining about my teaching method. This is how the tutor, my parents hired did, and considering where he had his hand, I will say I was far worse off than you are. Loosen up the muscles in your arms, you have to try and look like you actually enjoy this."

Harry winced when he realised that Pansy was right. While a pinch on the shoulder was annoying, more like slightly painful with the force she put behind it, it would be worse for the girl.

Still, it didn't mean he condemned that kind of treatment.

He felt that he was starting to get the hang on how this dancing worked when the music ended. Harry blinked as they came to a stop and he let go of Pansy. Stepping away from the witch he followed her line of sight, and his eyes narrowed as he saw the one standing in the doorway.

"Wormtail."

The word was nothing more than a low hiss when it passed over his lips. Still the sound was enough to gain the chubby build man's attention. "Come with me, Potter." Despite trying to, Wormtail failed at sounding intimidating.

"No." Harry said, not looking at Pansy who had moved over to the others. Apparently they thought that he was going to follow with the death eater because he was being told to.

Peter Pettigrew seemed put off by Harry's refusal. "The dark lord requires your presence." He tried again, fidgeting in the doorway.

Harry stayed where he was, knowing better than to turn his back to Pettigrew. "If Voldemort." Pettigrew was apparently one of those who flinched when hearing his master's name. "wants to see me, he'll either have to send someone else or come here himself. There is no way in Hell that I'll follow with the likes of you." Harry got a hold on himself before he could slip into Parseltongue. Already he could feel how he dragged out the S's. He needed to get his temper under control before he made a slip up.

Pettigrew looked at a loss for words. Harry watched as the man's mouth hang open until Pettigrew remember himself and closed it. "Fine, but you'll deal with the consequences." Wormtail said before hurrying off.

Undoubtedly he was running back to his master while trying to come up with an explanation to why he didn't have Harry with him.

Now, where the man was gone, Harry let the tenseness seep out of his body and flopped down on a chair. "What was that about?" Craning his head Harry managed to look at Draco upside down.

"That was Peter Pettigrew, also known as Wormtail, as he was called by his friends back in school. He is a rat animagus, which is useful when it comes to spy on the Order of the Phoenix, who believes that he is loyal to Dumbledore and his cause, though he rarely brings any useful back to us. Also, he is not someone you let small children stay alone with. He prefers anyone underage, but the younger they look, the better he thinks it'll be." Harry said with a shudder, as he remembered some of the less pleasant visions he had had about the man.

Silence fell over the group. Harry was waiting to see what Voldemort would do. The others were either doing the same or mulling over what he had just told them.

Harry didn't have to wait for long to get his answer. Though he had been watching the open door out of the corner of his eyes, Voldemort seemed to materialize out of thin air. Harry had blinked and then he was there. Perhaps there had been vampires among Voldemort's ancestors.

"I guess that this is my signal to leave, I'll see you later." Harry said as he stood and walked over to where Voldemort was. Not saying anything, the dark lord moved aside so Harry had just enough space to get through the door though it made their bodies brush against each other.

The silence continued as they walked despite the numerous looks Harry sent Voldemort. Perhaps it hadn't been such a good idea to go against an order but Harry refused to spend more time with Wormtail than he absolutely had to.

He had seen what the rat could do, and there was something about him which irked Harry. "Why do you keep him?" Though not having said any name Harry knew that Voldemort would know who he was speaking about.

"He's managed to gain Dumbledore's trust enough to spy on some of the less important Order members. And his rat animagus is useful." Harry nodded. It wasn't like he hadn't been expecting such an answer.

It didn't mean that he liked it. But as long as Voldemort saw a use in Wormtail, he wouldn't get rid of the follower.

"Don't struggle unless you want to lose a limb." It was the only warning Harry got as a strong arm snuck around his chest and pulled him flush against Voldemort's body.

Harry didn't even have time to consider what was happening as he was spilt to atoms. The sensation of getting sucked through a straw hit him.

His feet connected to hard pavement and Harry's legs bucked under him. It was only Voldemort's arm around his chest which prevented Harry from falling flat on his face.

He hung limp, breathing through his nose while he tried to stop his meagre lunch from resurfacing. "Was that Apparating?" Harry pressed out through clenched teeth. He didn't quite dare to relax unless he wanted to cause an embarrassing scene.

Unlike with Mad Eye Harry held no wish about throwing up on Voldemort.

Something was pressed against his lips, forcing its way into his mouth so Harry had to unclench his jaw unless he wanted to damage something. As soon as the thing brushed against his tongue, Harry's eyes snapped open. He got no hint from staring at the ground, but the floor looked somewhat familiar. "Eat, it'll make you feel better."

Harry found himself obeying Voldemort without much thoughts and bit of the chocolate. Slowly he chewed before swallowing, only to find the plate pressed against his lips once again. The process continued until Harry turned his face away, unable to stomach another bite of the chocolate.

"Can you stand?" In response Harry straightened and stepped away from Voldemort, embarrassed that the man had gotten to witness a weak moment. "Most people tend to feel uneasy the first few times they side Apparate, it should be over soon." The man assured him.

Still focussed on his breathing Harry nodded. "I didn't think that one could Apparate from Hogwarts. Aren't there wards stopping it from happening?" If not, he needed to think up a way to keep him from being Apparated out by random people.

A hand on his shoulder turned Harry around so he was facing Voldemort. Harry found himself staring into the red eyes as Voldemort looked down at him. "Do you really believe that a few wards would be enough to stop me from coming and going as I want to?"

"No." Harry assumed that it might have something to do with the fact that Voldemort was Slytherin's heir. Or perhaps it was because he was the ruler of the Wizarding world? He would have to look into that later on.

Hearing the pelting rain Harry looked around, realising that they were standing in front of the entrance to Gringotts. People were keeping their distance, recognising Voldemort. "What are we doing here?" He asked as Voldemort led him away from the falling rain.

"Our agreement was that before we would renegotiate I would choose something from your vault." That was all the explanation Harry received and he cursed himself for not thinking about it before now.

This time people only too willingly cleared the part to the nearest counter. It could have something to do with the man with him, but Harry quickly found himself standing in front of the counter. "May our dealings be profitable for both partners."

"And may your vaults be overflowing with gold."

Harry flashed his ring to the goblin, giving it enough time to see the jewellery, but at the same time he kept it concealed from Voldemort's view. "I would like to visit the Potter family vault."

"Will your guest be following with you?"

"Yes, he'll go with me." Harry said, tugging his ring back in the pocket he had originally had it in.

Harry gnawed lightly on his lower lip. It felt strange that he would share the first sight of his family's vault with Voldemort. The few Potters he had known, no matter how brief it had been, mattered nothing to Harry. But maybe, if others had lived, they would have been more accepting of him.

"Don't do that. It's not good for your lip." Two fingers pried his lip free and Harry allowed himself to scowl at Voldemort.

Nodding to the young looking goblin, who would be driving the cart, Harry stepped into the transport device and sat down. Not even a second later Harry found himself being pressed against the other side. "You are aware that there is a free seat just across?" He gesture meaningfully in its general direction.

"Yes, but I prefer the company on this one." Voldemort said, as he placed one arm around Harry, hindering the seer from moving to the opposite seat.

Before Harry could come up with a retort he was nearly hurled forward as the cart started moving.

Harry found that though it could not be compared to when he'd flown with Draco on a broom, the speed the cart took off with, made it nearly as good a experience.

He tried to lean over the edge to see how far above the ground they were. However before he could get a good look a hand closed around his neck and yanked him back into his seat, far closer to Voldemort than he had previously been. "Sit still." The hand around his neck tightened in warning when Harry tried to wiggle free and he let himself fall back with a huff.

All too soon the ride came to an end and Harry found that the stop was just as brutal as the start had been. It was only Voldemort's hand which managed to keep him from flying out of the cart. How the man managed to remain sitting without being affected by the change from fast moving to completely still, was a wonder to Harry.

As soon as the grip on his neck had slacked Harry was out of the cart. He glared briefly at Voldemort while rubbing his slightly sore neck, the only sign he had that the dark lord had not been entirely comfortable under their ride.

Deciding to ignore the man for now Harry turned to the goblin, which was already at the door to the vault. "You need to place your hand on the door." The nameless goblin said, stepping aside to five Harry some space.

Feeling the weight of Voldemort's gaze on him Harry walked over to where the goblin had been standing and placed his hand as instructed.

Panic shot up as he found that he was unable to move his hand. Harry's free hand closed around his wrist and he tried to yank his hand free. He might as well have been trying to move a mountain for all the use the action had.

A brief pain erupted in his hand when Harry felt something piece through his skin. And then he was no longer stuck to the door.

Retreating a few steps, Harry cradled his hand to his chest while he stared warily at the door. "What was that?" He asked no one in particular.

"It is a necessarily. The vault needed to recognise you as a member of the Potter family. Had you been someone else you would have been sucked dry of blood." A shiver ran down Harry's spine at the goblins words, and he silently swore that he would never attempt to rob Gringotts if that was what happened when one tried to enter one of the lower numbered vaults without permission.

"Thanks for the warning." He snapped irritated.

While they'd been talking the blood had activate something inside the door. A clicking sound filled the air as small devices started to move. Harry watched as the last mechanism fell in place and the door opened.

Eagerly Harry forgot all about his wariness and instead he walked through the opened door, hoping that no more unpleasant surprises would be waiting for him.

The Potter family was one of the older families and unlike the likes of the Weasleys they hadn't lost their fortune. Harry had read the papers Ragnok had shown him at his last visit. Yet he had to acknowledge that one thing was numbers on a paper, it was a whole other thing to see it in real life. And to think that another vault existed, though only with money.

Even if he did nothing but party for the rest of his life Harry doubted that he would make much of a dent in the riches in there.

Galleons, Sickles and Knuts were stacked in big and small piles without a seemingly system. Harry wondered if he could start a chain reaction if he happened topple one of them.

But as Harry already had known, money would not be the only things he found in the vault.

It seemed like the Potters before him had had the habit of putting things away for later use. There were enough inventories to furnish a small house several times. Small tingle tangle which could only have importance to the person who had placed it in the vault, stood alongside with objects Harry was sure had cost a small fortune.

Two tigers nearly scared the life out of Harry before he realised that tigers normally weren't green. A closer look proved that though they looked realistic, they were made of something he guessed to be jade. Someone had put a lot of time and work to make those two. They were in natural seize and the sculptor had made it so even the hairs in the fur could be seen when one looked close enough.

Impressed Harry moved along, wanting to see as much as possible before he would have to leave. And if he didn't manage to go through it all today, Harry swore that he would return at another time.

The next thing that caught his attention was a big tapestry. It was at least twice his height and Harry didn't bother to guess how wide the thing was.

At the bottom of the illustrated family tree Harry found his name and a small picture of him. Harry James Potter. It made him grimace in distaste and wonder if he could somehow remove his middle name.

He didn't need to be reminded more of the man, who had been willing to abandon him, more than he usually, was.

None of Lily's relatives showed on the family tree, much to Harry's relief. None of the muggles had had the slightest touch of magic in them or they would have showed up next to his mother's name.

Following James' line Harry found that he was related to Sirius, and longer out, through the same connection, he was also related to Draco, whose mother had been a Black before her marriage.

Harry grimaced slightly when he realised that he was closer related to Bellatrix than to his friend.

Because of the inbreeding Harry had known that it was impossible to avoid, but the witch creped him out with her sudden changes of mood. He didn't know what to do with her, when she suddenly had changed the way she treated him when they were in Diagon Alley.

"The Potters are direct descendants of the youngest of the three Peverell brothers. Their line in turn came from Salazar Slytherin. My line, on the other hand, descents from the second brother. The first one died before he could continue the line." Though having forgotten all about Voldemort's presence Harry showed no outwardly reaction. Instead his eyes stayed on the brothers, whom had been mentioned.

So he and Voldemort were related, if one could call it when the last direct connection laid so far back in the past.

It could explain an ability Harry was in possession of. Until now Harry had just thought that it was another strange thing about him which made him stand out from the group.

Following the line Voldemort had spoken of, Harry skipped until the most resent generations and frowned. "I don't see your name anywhere." He stiffened when Voldemort pressed against his back. What was it with the man and being so close to him?

"But did you really think that my mother would have named me Voldemort?" With some of the names floating around in the Wizarding would, it wouldn't have surprised Harry if that actually was the case.

Feeling like he was being tested Harry leaned closer and scrunched up his nose, as he tried to figure out which one Voldemort would be. Instead of creating a little distance between them, Voldemort followed the move so their bodies was pressing close against each other.

Luckily Voldemort didn't put any weight on him or Harry was sure that he would have toppled.

The last pureblood family who had been able to claim the title as Salazar's heirs and who had also been known Parselmouths had been the Gaunts. Marvolo Gaunt had had two children before he had died. The son, Morfin, had died childless, but the woman had her picture connected to a blank one, indicated that she had been married once.

And between those two, a new line continued down, showing a name which had no date of death.

Voldemort's had somehow known that he had found the answer as the man started chuckling darkly behind him. "My mother was a foolish woman. She could barely use magic and she fell in love with the handsome Tom Riddle, a muggle who lived in the same town as her." Voldemort's head was now resting on Harry's shoulder and his breath ghosted against his ear.

"She brewed a potion to make him fall in love with her, and then they ran away together. She had been saved by her Prince Charming and could have her fairy tale ending. Through the time they spent together, she kept dosing him with the love potion until she found that she was with child. She stopped poising him, believing that he would stay together with her by his own will because she carried his child."

Longer fingers carded through his hair, making Harry relax as he listened to Voldemort's tale. "Unfortunately the muggle did not get down on his knees and declared his endless love for her. He left, declaring that he wanted nothing to do with her or their unborn child. She despaired and ended wandered until she gave birth in a rundown orphanage. But not even the sight of her newborn son was enough to return her will to live. With her last breath she named her child, Tom Marvolo Riddle. I am Lord Voldemort." With his wand, Voldemort made the name the first name appear, before mixing the letters so Harry could see what he meant.

"And then she died, leaving her son to grow up among muggles, clueless about his heritage until he was contacted by a professor from Hogwarts."

"Why are you telling me this?" Harry turned his face so he was looking at Voldemort. If he wanted to, Harry could stick his tongue out and lick the man's cheek. What he'd been told sounded too strange to be true, and yet he saw no reason to why Voldemort should lie to him.

Voldemort stood, his hand still in Harry's hair. "Do you see how alike we are? Both of us were abandoned by those who were supposed to care for us when we were still children. We grow up among people who didn't care for us or our gifts. My guess is that Hogwarts is just as much your home, as I view it as mine."

Harry took a long step and went out of reach. Voldemort let him, saying nothing while simply staring at him when Harry turned fully around to look at him. It was as if the man was waiting for a response of some kind.

Instead Harry shook his head, deciding to focus his thoughts on other things. "I thought that we were here so you could find the things you wanted." He said, glancing around and trying to figure out what things could probably catch the dark lord's attention.

"If that is what you wish for. It might take some time. I'll have to carefully go through it all before I can make my choice." Voldemort said, before he left.

Shaking his head Harry decided that dark lords were too complicated for him to figure out.

Since Voldemort had said nothing about staying where he was, Harry started drifting around. And even if Voldemort had given such an order, Harry would not have heeded it. He was interested in seeing what generations of Potters could have collected through the years.

Harry found portrait of people he believed were his ancestors. All they needed was a simple spell and they would be ready to give their knowledge to the current living Potter.

Harry passed them without as much as a second glance.

On a wall Harry found several weapons, some of them looking rather much like the one Ragnok had borrowed him when Harry had claimed his lordship. His hand moved over each weapon, not quite touching while he wondered what kind of story they had.

Some of the knives had dried blood on them, and others were placed in glass cases. Harry stared at them, wondering what would happen if he touched those. Perhaps there was some kind of curse on those weapons. It was just a shame that no one had left a sign to explain why they were there.

Harry was about to move on when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eyes. Curious Harry let his feet carry him over to the clothing.

It was a cloth of some kind. When he looked closer Harry realised that it was a cloak. He would have written it off as something someone had forgotten, if not for the way it had been pressed in between two old looking shields, as if trying to hide the cloak.

Though Harry knew that it was probably not the smartest thing to do, he leaned down and picked up the cloak for closer inspection.

The cloak was feather light, not something one would wear when they went outside, and it was far from as fancy as those he knew any self respecting pureblood would be seen in.

At the last Harry wrapped the cloak around his body and he looked down himself. Or, he would have done so if not because his body had disappeared from sight. Deciding to test this before he started truly panicking Harry attempted to take a step forwards and he found that he could still move despite not being able to see himself.

Now where he knew that he was invisible, and that his body had not disappeared a new gleam entered Harry's eyes. He pulled up the hood and looking and the blank surface Harry knew that he was now fully invisible.

Harry found that it was harder to move, now where he could no longer see his limbs, though he certainly felt his body whenever he hit against something.

He found Voldemort studying the same weapons he had previously looked at, with far more interest than what Harry had been able to produce. The man was already holding a book in his hand and was trying to decide what he should choose next.

Where the idea came from, Harry didn't know. But had he been visible, an insane grin could probably be spotted on his face as soon as it stuck him.

Barely daring to breathe Harry sneaked up behind Voldemort. The man had yet to notice him, immersed as he was in his observations. Harry licked his lips, slowly raising his hands, making sure not to make a sound.

"If you do that, you'll have to suffer the consequences." A loud eep left Harry's mouth as his hand halted, less than an inch from the man's bared side. As Voldemort turned around, Harry let his hand fall and pushed back his hood.

"How did you know that I was there?" He asked.

"Your scent." After working several hours with potions, they leave a certain smell on you. It's not unpleasant and one will have to concentrate to be able to catch it."

That told Harry two things.

He needed to be sure that he was throughout clean before he attempted to use the cloak to sneak up on people again.

And two, Voldemort was nearly as paranoid as Mad Eye, and had noticed Harry's smell.

Well, that probably made it three points, but who counted anyway?

A pointed look from Voldemort had Harry taking off the cloak so his body reappeared. "An invisibility cloak, how interesting. And it'll have to be a good one considering that it is still working despite all the years it must have been here. Most would have faded by now, this one must be truly remarkable." Voldemort's words made Harry tighten his grip on the cloak. He didn't want to part from his newfound treasure.

Wizards had spells which could make them invisible, or at least less noticeable for a short amount of time. This cloak could put him on a more even ground with them. And it could make it much easier for him to sneak around at Hogwarts whenever he wanted to.

As if reading his thoughts Voldemort said. "I'll allow you to take the cloak with you, if you promise not to use it to get yourself or others into danger." Harry nodded. It had not occurred him that Voldemort would forbid him from removing anything from the vault.

But the man would hardly let him bring something which could be harmful through the wards surrounding Hogwarts. "A verbal answer."

"I promise." Harry said, feeling silly, but he didn't want to give Voldemort time to change his mind. When Voldemort did nothing more than nod, Harry folded the cloak until it was small enough to fit into one of his bigger pockets in this robe.

Looking back at Voldemort, Harry found himself asking, "Did you find what you wanted?" Harry hoped for a negative answer. He wanted more time to explore his vault and the many objects inside it.

"Yes, your ancestors seem to have the collection. I found a book written by Salazar Slytherin. By the looks of it, it's genuine. Only someone speaking Parseltongue would be able to write Parselscript." Harry peeked up at this.

"I thought that it was only a language which could be spoken." Parseltongue was after all the language of the reptiles. They had no hands, and Harry doubted very much that they would have any interest in reading, at least not those few he had conversed with. As long as their stomachs were full, they were happy with life.

"Salazar Slytherin was a man who trusted very few and wanted to keep his secrets within the family. Since only a blood relative of his would be able to speak Parseltongue, it's quite clever of him to write things down like this. As long as no one who understood the language got their hands on his notes, his secrets and plans would be safe."

It made sense now that Harry had it explained to him. And if not because he feared that his secret would be out if someone found such a note written by him, Harry would have been happy to take a note out of the founder's book. Not literally, of course.

Voldemort brought Harry's attention to the current moment by clearing his throat. "Why the book ended here, is a mystery. My guess is that some of your ancestors fell over the book by accident, and since he or she could not understand it, they placed it in her."

While what Voldemort said made sense, Harry had a theory on his own.

He doubted very much that he was the first Potter who was a Parselmouth. But unlike with Voldemort's ancestors those people had preferred to keep their ability a secret, instead of telling it for the whole world to hear.

Chances were that they had found the book, read it and then placed it in here so future generations of speakers could get a use of the book and whatever was inside it.

It was a book Harry would have liked to get a closer look at. But perhaps he could be lucky and get a closer look at it in the future.

"As a second object I take this one." With that Voldemort withdrew something from his pocket. It was a small golden cup with two finely-wrought handles with a badger engraved on the side and a few jewels. Harry tilted his head to the side, trying to figure out what was so special about the cup, that Voldemort would want it.

"Your ancestors were quite the samplers. I wonder how they managed to get their hands on Helga Hufflepuff's cup, and if they knew what it was. Somehow I doubt that it was the case, otherwise it would not have ended here to gather dust."

Harry stared at the things, not sure about how he was expected to react. It seemed like a lot of treasures had been hidden away in here. It made him wonder what else there might be to find.

"Give me your hand." At Harry's raised eyebrow he received an explanation. "Our agreement was that I would also find something which you would wear." Knowing that there was no way around it, Harry offered Voldemort his left hand.

That way, whatever Voldemort did, it would not hinder him much in his daily life. If the man knew his way of thinking, he didn't comment on it.

Something cold and light closed around his wrist. Harry attempted to snatch his hand back, but Voldemort's fingers had closed around the appendage, preventing Harry from doing as he wanted.

Looking down Harry stared at the thin, silver bracelet around his wrist. It fit him, and when Harry took a closer look at it, he was unable to find a lock which would allow him to take it off. Knowing that Voldemort had not just chosen it because of its looks, Harry knew that there was only one way for him to find out what was so special about the jewellery.

"What is it?"

"A bracelet." The man let go of him and started walking back towards the exit with the two things safely tugged in under his arm. Harry hurried after him and got in front of the dark lord, forcing Voldemort to stop unless he wanted to walk over Harry.

"I meant, what can it do?" Most people would have been on the floor, writhing under a curse the moment they stepped in front of Voldemort. Harry wondered if the man would also be so forgiving if they had been in public.

Voldemort looked almost amused and Harry decided to look at it as a plus for him. "To you? Nothing, so you'll not have to worry about that. But it's something purebloods normally use around the time their children start doing accidental magic. It allows the person who placed the jewellery on the child to know if the child is in danger. There is also a tracking charm on it, so I will know wherever you are, as long as you are wearing the bracelet. They have proved to be quite useful when a child for example Apparates across the country."

Harry wasn't sure what he was supposed to think. The idea of wearing something meant for children wasn't attractive to him. But he'd have to admit that it could prove to be useful in case he fell in the Order's hands, not that he planned on doing so. Harry wanted to stay as far away from those people as possible. "But wont people know what it is?"

"Each design differs from family to family. Since I'll be the one connected to you through its charms, I saw if fit to change it from gold to silver. So you should be safe as long as it is not removed." Harry rubbed his wrist, trying to get used to the feeling of the metal against his skin. "If you are done with questioning me, perhaps we can move along."

Despite forming it like a request, Voldemort didn't give Harry much of a choice in the matter. Voldmeort placed a hand on his shoulder and while he tugged the youth to his side, he used the move to turn Harry, so they were facing the same direction.

"Stop manhandling me." Harry protested as Voldemort started walking and Harry was forced to follow with him because of the grip the man had on him.

A sideway glance told Harry that Voldemort indeed was smirking at him. "If I started manhandling you, you would notice it, I promise you that:" The man said darkly, his voice sending shivers down Harry's spine.

The goblin and the cart were still waiting for them when they stepped out of the vault. Harry jumped when the door closed behind them, sending a puff of cold air against his back.

Voldemort helped him into the cart, before he resumed the same position as they had had when they had been driving down here. "Can it go slower?" Voldemort asked as the goblin had retaken its own seat.

"We only have one speed." Came the answer.

"How about faster?" Harry asked and a frightening grin spread on the goblin's face.

"There is fast, and then we have faster." The goblin answered.

Harry cheered when the cart took off, moving much faster than it had done on its way down here. Beside him Voldemort sat tense and Harry felt a spike of childish glee.

Perhaps Voldemort would learn that Harry would not even let a dark lord manhandle him.

**)00(**

**Lord Voldemort's mystical companion**

**By R. Skeeter.**

**Yesterday Lord Voldemort could be seen outside Gringott's entrance in company of an unknown wizard. The two of them arrived via Apparation, which the wards around Diagon Alley allows no one but our leader to pass through by such means. **

**It was clear that the two males have a close relation, as the dark lord was seen feeding the young male chocolate after their arrival, which is known to help when one is not used to the means of Apparation.**

**Afterwards they went inside Gringotts and were by several witnesses seen taking the same cart, though no goblin has been willing to reveal what their business in Gringotts was, or which vault the pair went to.**

**Who this mystical male who has managed to catch the eye of Lord Voldemort might be, is still unknown. If anyone has information about him, the Daily Prophet is willing to pay a small honorary for useful information.**

Over the article, which had made the front page, there was a picture of the dark lord tenderly feeding the brat what indeed looked to be chocolate.

Severus was aware of the plans his lord had for the brat. Only an idiot would be willing to let such a source go without at least attempting to make it so there was some kind of connection between them.

Skeeter was not a woman he liked, but she had an ability to find stories, and if she couldn't find one, she would make one up.

She was someone he would have to look out for. Apparently she had chosen his ward as her newest victim. Since Voldemort had his attention on Harry, the woman would not be able to unleash her mean steaks on the brat.

But just to be safe Severus would make sure to keep an eye on the woman. After all, he knew the brat well enough to know that Harry had not caught wind of Voldemort's plans just yet.

It was indeed interesting to watch how Voldemort would subtly try to ensnare Harry with Slytherin tactics. The boy's parents had both been Gryffindors, and in some cases their thick headedness seemed to have passed on to their son.

**So, opinions?**

**Next: The Ministry ball.**

**And can someone explain to me, how a houseelf's Grammatik works? All my books are in Danish, so I don't get much help from there. **

**Mortimus suggested that Harry should be feed chocolate, I have still not figured out where Voldemort got it from. When I asked my friend, he told me that everybody should have chocolate in the pocket no matter what time it is. As soon as my shoulder is okay, I'm going to ambush him and find out where his chocolate is. **

**Until next time. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Apologies for the delay.**

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**Warning: Somebody is going to die, and in time this will be slash.**

**Beta: angelhitomie**

Harry's feet were barely touching the ground as he ran down the stairs. Hearing the footsteps of his pursuers behind him, Harry swore lowly under his breath. Something drastically would have to be done, if he wanted to get rid of those following him.

Sidestepping a group of Hufflepuffs, which came from a staircase which had just connected with the one Harry was currently on, Harry left the stairs and turned around a corner. Seeing that no one else was in the Entrance Hall Harry reached into his pocket, finding his Invisibility Cloak he had taken to carry on his person no matter what.

He sent a curt smile to the portrait of a naked woman, who was hiding behind a bush, and wrapped the cloak around him. Harry slowed down to walk, knowing that fast movements would heighten the risk of being detected.

It didn't escape his notice that the woman had disappeared from her portrait, she was probably heading of to inform someone of what was going on.

Harry started walking away when his pursuers rounded the same corner he had come from.

Bellatrix's eyes were dancing with mirth as she slowly twirled her wand between her fingers in an almost lazy manner. "Ity little favourite nephew, come out and play with your beloved Aunt Bellatrix." Harry shuddered at the sickened sweet voice she was using, as if the witch honestly expected that it would be enough to make him come forth.

Behind her, Rodolphus and Rabastan appeared, looking lightly winded. Considering that they had been following him from the second floor near Myrtle's bathroom and the whole way to the Entrance Hall, Harry couldn't be surprised. "You are aware that he's not really your nephew, right?"

Bellatrix hushed at her husband and hit Rabastan on top of his head to silence his snickering. "I know, but his grandmother was a Black, which makes him family too. And nephew sounds much better than calling him cousin. Besides, this way I have two nephews whom I can teach all those nice little tricks I know."

Harry rolled his eyes, knowing better than to try and understand the way the witch's brain worked. He continued his retreat, reaching the double door leading outside. Harry twisted his body, so his hand was hidden beneath the cloak as he grabbed the doorhandle and he could meanwhile keep an eye on the discussing trio.

His plan about an unnoticed escape was spoiled when wind swept through the cracked open door and lifted up his cloak. "Potter wait!" Harry wondered if Rabastan really believed that he would follow the order, when he very well knew what fate awaited him if he was caught by the trio.

Still wrapped in the Invisibility Cloak Harry took off and went outside. To any spectators it must be a rather strange sight to see a pair of legs and a head moving around on their own without the rest of the body anywhere in sight.

It surprised him that no one had attempted to curse him. No matter what the reason was, Harry wasn't late to use it to his advantage. Normally he would probably not be able to outrun those people because of his shorter legs. But when he'd been in Diagon Alley he'd gotten the seamstress to cut his robes, so he would be able to move his legs more freely than the normal model would have allowed him to.

Also, wizards and witches tended to rely heavily on their wands. Harry didn't have such a thing to make life easy for him, so he was used to moving around.

Rain had washed away the snow, leaving the ground muddy and slippery. Harry himself was about to fall several times. And yet Bellatrix continued running after him with no big problems despite the high heels Harry knew she was wearing.

Harry headed for a lonesome tree, knowing that he would be safe once he reached it. It was a rare specimen, and no one would dare to get too close or to hurt it just to get their hands on him.

When he was close enough, the Whomping Willow wrapped a branch around his midsection and flung him into the air. Knowing that it would only get worse if he resisted, Harry kept his arms close to his body and didn't fight against the way the tree manhandled him as he was thrown around like a human seized ball.

Some of the throws were longer and gravity managed to set in, pulling him down. Before Harry could hit the ground, another branch wrapped itself around him and flung him up in the air anew.

Harry laughed, enjoying the feeling of the air moving around him. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine himself flying for short amounts of time.

All too soon in Harry's opinion he was placed on a wide and unmoving branch. The one that had last grabbed him, waited to let go until it was sure that Harry would not just drat down from where he was.

Even if that happened Harry doubted that the Whomping Willow would allow him to get hurt.  
Petting the big tree Harry finally turned his attention towards his three pursuers. It didn't surprise him to see that they were standing just out of the branches' reach, though the Willow was doing its best to get a hold on them.

By the looks of it, the Willow had managed to get a few good hits in, if the black eye Rabastan was spotting and the way Bellatrix glared at the tree was anything to go by.

Rodolphus was staring at Harry, even with the distance between them, Harry could feel that the wizard was planning something. As if feeling his nervousness one of the smaller branches touched his shoulder, in an almost caring way.  
Harry placed his hand on the branch, almost convinced that he could feel the tree's excitement. "I wouldn't advise you to try anything. If you do magic, you'll probably anger the Willow. And from this height, I don't think that I can go away unharmed if I fell."

Not taking his eyes off the trio Harry sat down in the cross-legged position and leaned back against the tree trunk. "Little Harrykins, come down and play. Auntie Bellatrix just wants to fix your hair. You're going to be so pretty."

At the witch's words Harry clutched his braid close. It might be paranoia speaking, but Harry wouldn't put it past the woman to try even with the distance between them. If not for the Whomping Willow's fiery defence she would probably be up in the tree with him. "Sorry, but I'm not coming down. You might as well find someone else. Maybe Draco needs help to choose his clothes for tonight?"

Harry didn't feel the slightest bit sorry for handing Draco over to the trio. Something told him that his blond friend was the whole reason to why the chase had started in the first place.

As Harry saw it, it was only fair that he made a little payback.

Even from this distance Bellatrix's grin seemed disturbingly bright. With a short wave in his general direction the witch dragged off with the two wizards, probably to find some victim which was not being protected by an old tree which was more than willing to hit anyone who came close enough.

"Thank you." Harry mumbled to the tree.

Knowing that he would have some time before someone thought of looking for him, Harry closed his eyes. He wanted to enjoy the peace and silence for as long as possible.

)00(

A slow tune was being played in the background, barely heard over the chattering going on around him.

Harry stood near one of the tables bulging with food. By the looks of it the party had been going on for some time, though not much of the food had been touched by the sheer amount still left.

Perhaps it was one of the strange pureblood customs he didn't really understand.

The people around him were dressed in fine made dressrobes. Some of the colours were bright enough to make Harry want to cover his eyes so he wouldn't risk burning out his eyes at the sight.

A strangled sound to his left made Harry swift his attention to the man standing near one of the food tables, a goblet with what looked like wine in his hand. He was of average height and built, his hair grey with silvery steaks in it. As most of those standing around him the man was wearing blue robes with white decorations on them.

Already the man had a blue tint around the corners of his mouth as he fought for every breath he took.

Harry was not the only one who had been brought to attention by the sounds the man emitted. He was sure that someone screamed, but he couldn't pay attention to the woman at the current moment. Foams had started coming out of the man's mouth and his grip on the goblet loosened as his brown eyes rolled back in his head.

Unable to see the man more because of the people flocking around him, Harry's eyes went to the fallen goblet. The red wine, looking remarkable much like blood, had spilled on the floor. Yet no one paid notice to it as they tried to help the man, who was no longer attempting to drag in air and whose's chest movements had all but stopped.

"Brat!" Harry sucked in a deep breath and opened his eyes only to blink in confusion when he found himself hanging upside down, after having been standing on his feet in the vision.

Branches were wrapped tightly around his body, nearly cutting of his blood circulation. Twisting his head the best he could in his current position, Harry found his lips pulled into a grin as he spotted the black robes in his range of vision. "Hey Severus." Though not being able to see the Potions Master's face Harry knew that the man was annoyed, if the tone of his voice had been anything to go by.

"Get down here and come with me." Came the order, leaving him no room to protest."

Sighing Harry knew better than to drag it out when Severus used that tone. Something or someone had angered his guardian worse than usually and Harry didn't want to be the one Severus lashed out on. The man could have a nasty temper when it hit him.

"Can you let me down? I promise that next time I come, I'll make sure to bring some of those balls you like to play with." The tree seemed to think over his suggestion before it turned him back to a more normal position. Harry sighed as the blood stopped rushing to his head.

Gently he was placed down on the ground where he wobbled slightly on his feet before he found his balance. The Willow patted his shoulder before withdrawing its branches, leaving Harry a clearway over to Severus.

Harry had to run to catch up with Severus, who was walking back towards the castle. Reaching his side Harry slowed down so he was walking the same pace as Severus. "So, what's up." Harry asked, knowing that there had to be a reason to why Severus had come to fetch him.

"In case that it has escaped your notice, there is a party which both of us will have to attend in one and a half hour. If you do not want to be an embarrassment to me, you better do your best effort to look respectable. As my assistant anything you do will be reflected back on me." Harry nodded.

He knew that Severus cared little about public opinion, but the man's words reminded him of the vision.

"Something bad will happen tonight." Harry said, getting a sharp look.

"Explain yourself."

"At least I think that it's going to happen tonight. I saw a party or a ball of some kind. There were purebloods attending, wealthy dressed people." He didn't bother to lower his voice as they stepped inside. Harry knew that Severus had put up a privacy Charm around them as soon as Harry had started talking about his vision.

"It happened late into it. Some man dratted around after drinking some wine from the table. By the blue tint and the foams around his mouth, I would say he's suffocated. But it happened too fast for it to be natural, my guess would be that it's poison. But several people seemed to drink the same wine. Maybe it was something else, or perhaps there'll be more than one poison, but you need to intake both before they work."

Frustrated Harry rubbed his forehead. He hated it when he didn't understand what he saw right away. It made it harder to know what they were supposed to do. "Oh, and before he died, the man said something. I couldn't understand what it was, but it sounded like French."

By the change in Severus' posture Harry knew that it could not be considered something good. "Only a few Frenchmen have been invited for tonight's event. But all of them will be high standing members of the French Ministry. Should any of them die under questionable circumstances in Britain, it'll not broad well for the dark lord."

Severus didn't need to say more for Harry to understand what he meant. The French had always been some of the dark lord's more fickle allies. If anything happened to a representative inside Britain's borders, the French Ministry would only be too willingly to denounce all alliances with Voldemort.

And if that happened Harry was sure that Dumbledore would be ready to use the opportunity to gain new allies in the fight against Voldemort's regime.

When they reached their quarters, Severus didn't follow Harry inside. "Make yourself ready and when I've informed the dark lord of what you've seen I'll bring you to the ball."

"I will do that." Harry answered, completely ignoring Severus' snarky tone. As soon as the door closed Harry headed straight for the bathroom.

Though keeping their home simple, there were two places which Severus insisted should be on par with the purebloods.

One of those was the laboratories, which were always fully stocked and clean.

Considering how much time they both spent in there, Harry supposed that he should not really be surprised about that.

The second location was the bathroom. With how much damage the potions fumes did on Severus' skin and hair the man had to invest much money on bodycare products to make sure that he didn't look like a wandering corpse.

Also, Severus was the kind of person, who couldn't stand dirt, not on himself or in his living quarters. The only one Harry could think of who was worse than his guardian would be Draco. At least Severus didn't mind getting dirtied when it was something related to the potions he worked on.

The bathroom was rather small with a toilet, a stall and a sink with a mirror hanging over it. The whole wall opposite the sink was taken up by a closet. Opening it Harry revealed a wide variety of care products to skin and hair and fluffy towels.

Picking up the needed items Harry closed the closet again and placed the towels on the iron rods, placed on the wall, where he would easily be able to reach them.

Shredding his robes and other clothes Harry placed the dirty clothes in the washing bin. He didn't need to look down his body to see the various scars that decorated his skin. A few came because of the so called care his muggle relatives had subjected him to while he lived with them.

But the rest was Harry's own work,

The shower was turned on and soon hot fumes filled the air. Harry stepped in under the spray, letting out a sigh as the warm water relaxed his muscles.

As soon as he stood under the water Harry allowed his thoughts to wander.

At the current moment Severus was probably informing the dark lord about Harry's latest vision, as the man had promised that he would. They would take care of the problem, meaning that there was nothing for Harry to do.

And yet, he could not let go of his vision just yet.

With so many important people assembled in one place, the security would be high. The wards would have been updated recently and those Aurors not important enough to be invited to such an event, would be on guard duty.

Anyone who attempted to murder someone there would either be suicidal or very confident that they would succeed.

The nagging feeling in his stomach told Harry, that it would probably be the last option.

While soaping in his hair, Harry stared into the air. For once Severus had not stayed so they could discuss how they could best prepare for what he'd seen would happen in his vision. It happened sometimes that they didn't have much time to discuss, but this would happen hours away.

Harry shook his head, determined not to complain. Other people's lives were in danger, of course Severus would not hang around when there was something more important for him to do.

No matter what, Harry planned on going prepared. He knew where Severus kept his Bezoars stones, and it should be no problem to sneak in and take one or two with him. They would take care of most poisons. And if they didn't work, whatever caused the man's death would be out of his league.

Turning off the water Harry grabbed one of the towel and started to dry his body. Touching a sore spot Harry winced. He moved the towel and looked down himself with a small grimace. "It doesn't know its own strength." He mumbled, eyeing the darkening bruises from where the Whomping Willow had held him while tossing him around in the air.

Hopefully whatever robes he was supposed to wear tonight would be able to cover this up. The bruises reached down his arms, and he wouldn't risk anyone accusing Severus of abusing him.

Having completed dried himself, Harry wrapped a new towel around his body and another one around his still slightly wet hair. Though Severus had probably not yet returned, Harry didn't feel like acting like a nudist.

Glancing to both sides through a gap in the door Harry made sure that there was no one to see him. Not wasting time Harry darted out of the bathroom, his hands holding the towel in a secure grip around his body.

The temperature was lower outside the bathroom, so shivers were running through Harry's body when he reached his room and closed the door behind him. Harry leaned against the surface, breathing out in relief.

As much as he was in peace with his body, he saw no reason to show it to others. Harry only knew too well what state his relatives and the Order had left him in. Not even all the potions Severus had forced down his throat through the years could change Harry's stunted growth.

"Dobby is here to helps Great Master Harry Potter, sir." At the squeaky voice, sounding much like when one stepped on one of the dog playthings, Harry jumped up in the air, losing his otherwise secure grip on the towel around his body. Before much could be shown Harry had the towel back in place, glaring at the houseelf standing near his bed.

Seeing the look he sent it, the houseelf let out a squeak and started banging its head against his bedpost. "Bad Dobby. Dobby is a bad houseelf. No scaring Great Master Harry Potter."

Fearing for the houseelf's health, since the mental seemed long gone, Harry decided it was the physical, Harry decided to intervene. "Dobby, stop. You actually helped me." Technically it was no lie. The houseelf reminded him, that the safety inside his room was a matter of illusion.

As he had hoped the creature stopped further self-harm and looked at him with eyes of the size of tennis balls. "Great Master Harry Potter is really as kind as Little Master Draco Malfoy says, sir." The houseelf said. At least Harry now knew who had sent the houseelf to him.

"That is good Dobby, but why are you here?" Already Harry had a growing feeling of what the reason would be, but he wanted some kind of proof that he was not drawing hasty conclusions.

The houseelf positively beamed at the question. "Dobby is being a good houseelf. Dobby is being help Great Master Harry Potter with being ready for ball, sir."

Harry wanted to groan. Even better, he wanted to seek out Draco and give him a piece of his mind for sending Dobby to him. Unfortunately Harry knew that he could not just do that. If he sent the houseelf away, the little guy might iron his hands or something just as painfully because the little guy believed that he wasn't good enough for the task his master had given him.

"I can dress myself." Seeing the way the houseelf's ears dropped Harry quickly added. "But are you any good with hair?" If not, Harry might have an excuse for not attending the ball.

"Oh yes, sir. Dobby is being very good at hairs. No worries, Great Master Harry Potter."

"Fine, but turn around while I'm dressing." They houseelf obeyed immediately and even went as far as covering its ears with its hands, though Harry was not sure what good it would do.

Making sure that Dobby wasn't peeking Harry went to his bed, seeing that something had already been laid out for him to wear.

Both the trousers and the shirt were dark green, and made to fit his form, but that was also were the similarities between them stopped. The shirt was made of silk and had silver embroidery on it which reminded Harry of snakes. To wear on top of that was a black robe with the same embroidery as the shirt.

A blush coloured Harry face when he realised that black silk boxes had been laid out for him to use. Since he knew for sure that he didn't own something like that, he wondered where Draco had gotten his measurements from.

Deciding to ponder on such things on a later time, Harry started dressing. He'd already spent enough time in the bath. If he wasn't careful Severus would be there before he was ready to go.

The clothes fit him and the dressrobe settled easily against his body. Harry used a moment to smooth out any winkles, mewling at the feeling of the cloth against his skin. The robe was made of a martial he didn't recognise, but it was light and definitely not meant for outdoor uses.

At the floor black dragonhide shoes stood. Harry stared down at them, while feeling a strong urge to poke the footwear. The shoes looked great bit different from what he would usually wear and Harry doubted that he would be able to run far in those, if it should prove to be necessary.

"Is Great Master Harry Potter ready for Dobby doing his hairs, sir?" Having forgotten all about the houseelf's presence while dressing Harry's hand flew to his chest, trying to calm his fast beating heart. He nodded before remembering that Dobby was not about to see him and instead he used his voice.

The houseelf turned around, clapping its hands. "Dobby is making Great Master Harry Potter looks pretty."

Before Harry could even think of protesting he found himself seated in a chair which appeared out of nowhere in the middle of his room.

With a snap of Dobby's fingers Harry found a cloth covering his robe, his hair completely loose and scissors hovering in the air around his head together with a few combs. "Don't take too much of the length off." Harry pleaded, ready to make a run for the door at the first given opportunity.

"Dobby is making Great Master Harry Potter looks pretty." The houseelf promised for the second time and Harry realised that Bellatrix had roughly said the same thing when he had been up in the Whomping Willow.

Closing his eyes when the scissors and combs started moving, Harry sat stiff as a board. By now he had guessed that Dobby was probably a Malfoy houseelf, and as Draco had pointed out several times in the past, a Malfoy owned nothing but the best.

Then why couldn't he get rid of the fear that Dobby might clips his ear of if Harry moved as much as an inch?

"All done, now Great Master Harry Potter is looking pretty." At Dobby words, Harry dared to open his eyes, finding a big mirror floating in the air in front of him.

To Harry's great relief, Dobby didn't seem to have taken much off the length. Just enough for Harry's head to feel slightly lighter than he was used to. Turning his head, Harry watched himself closely, trying to form an opinion of Dobby's work.

All hair bare his fringe had been pulled away from his face, probably to conceal the lighting formed scar on his forehead. The rest had been pulled together in his neck, folded in half and was now held in place by what looked like two chopsticks.

Turning his head from side to side to get a better look, Harry decided that it was a good difference. With the way Dobby had been speaking Harry had feared that he would end up with big curls and pink bows in his hair. This he could live with.

"Great Master Harry Potter be needing Dobby for anything else?" Shaking his head, Harry stood and sent the houseelf off, the chair and mirror disappeared together with the houseelf.

A knock on his door drew Harry's attention to it. "I'm decent." He said with a slight roll of his eyes.

It was something Severus insisted he had to say, instead of inviting someone into his room.

Though Hogwarts had wards to keep out vampires unless they had been invited, Severus still insisted that Harry was careful. Apparently an encounter with a werewolf back in his time as a student, had made the man mistrust most of those who were not fully human.

Severus opened the door but didn't step inside. The man was dressed in black robes, much like Harry's own, but without the silver markings. The dark hair hang lose, looking free of the grease which usually was in there when the man had been working with potions. "I see that you managed to make yourself look acceptable. If we do not want to create a big entrance by arriving late, we better leave now."

Harry's eyes flickered around the room. Perhaps he could find something which would give him an excuse for not attending the ball. Chances were that he would just find a dark corner to hide in, so he saw no reason to leave Hogwarts.

Sighing Severus abandoned his spot in the doorway. Harry nearly jumped out of his skin when two hands landed on his shoulders, and his eyes met with onyx coloured ones. "If you show any weaknesses they'll rip you to pieces."

"Who knew that you could be so comforting? If you should ever be tired of making potions, you could start consulting." Harry spit out, feeling slightly better at the nauseous look Severus got on his face, before it disappeared somewhere behind the man's mask.

"I'm merely stating a fact. If you wanted comfort, go and search out someone else. Keep this on you no matter what." A small ball of compact hair was pressed into his hand. At the look Harry sent him, Severus started explaining. "Since we do not know where the poison will be it is best to be prepared. With you we are four that will be prepared for tonight."

What Severus said made sense. They couldn't risk letting anyone know that they were aware of what would happen. The poison had not been added by itself. If he or she got hang of what they knew, the person might change their plans and they would lose what advantage they had.

Following Severus out Harry let the stone slip into an inner pocket, where he easily could reach it if it should prove to be necessary.

It was past dinner and those students, who had not been permitted to leave, had sampled near the entrance to watch those leaving for the ball.

Harry watched the students. Walking with Severus Harry might as well have been the man's shadow with how close he was walking to the Potions master, not wanting to attract attention to his person. Severus' presence calmed him and made it less likely that he would run over the hills, screaming.

It seemed like they were leaving as some of the last ones, despite Severus' warning. Harry could only spot a few colourful dressrobes among the black ones of the students.

Together they headed for the portkey area, making Harry want to grimace in disdain. Last time he had used such a device, it had not went well. Why couldn't wizards come up with a more pleasant way of travelling which was just as fast?

"The portkey has been designed to only bring back one person to Hogwarts." Severus broke the silence as they reached the portkey area. "The dark lord wants someone to check up on the giants and make sure that they remember who they are allies with. I'll leave as soon as we are done tonight."

Harry nodded, not sure what else he was supposed to do. He was used to Severus leaving him for shorter or longer periods of times. Though he knew that the man could take care of himself, it didn't stop Harry from worrying about him.

"Also, the dark lord plans on letting chosen people reveal your status as a seer tonight. It will be a gentler method than if he decided just to announce it through the Daily Prophet. He believes that while it'll raise people's interest in you, it'll also be easier to protect you from the Order when more people are aware of what you are."

Severus words made Harry's hackles rise. He supposed that it was a necessity. He had seen the article Skeeter had written about them after his and Voldemort's short visit to Diagon Alley. It could not be avoided that they would spend more time together when Harry had to tell his visions to the man on his own.

Skeeter was an effective journalist, if nothing else could be said. Harry was surprised that she had not already sniffed out that he was a squib and circulate nasty rumours about him.

Perhaps it was because she was not yet sure where he stood with Voldemort, and didn't want to risk the anger of the man who ruled the world they lived in.

Nothing more was said as they touched the portkey, a small pocket watch and Harry closed his eyes as he felt the familiar tug in his stomach.

This time Harry somewhat managed to not fall when they landed. He stumbled a little before he regained his balance and decided to open his eyes.

They were in a room intended to receive those who arrived with portkeys. Only one portkey at a time could arrive or leave the room and the space was limited, so no big groups could be in there.

If someone intended to invade the Ministry, they would have to find another way inside.

With Severus' hand on his arm Harry was lead from the room so the next ones would be able to arrive.

From there they stepped directly into the hall which had been decorated for tonight's ball.

A band was placed on a stage in the far end of the room, playing a soft tune to which those on the dance floor moved to. One side of the walls had been cleared to contain those tables with food Harry had seen in his vision.

Those not currently dancing stood near the tables, chatting heartedly with each other. Silently Harry wondered, how many new rumours would be started when each moved on to new groups to discuss what they'd heard.

Severus had let go of him now where they were among other people, and Harry found that he bemoaned the lost of security the touch had given him.

Remembering what Severus had told him, Harry changed his posture. He straightened his back, pushed his shoulders slightly back and tilted his chin upwards. It was a position he had seen Draco adopt whenever the blond was around other purebloods who did not belong to his little group of friends.

If one overdid it, they looked arrogant. However, Harry just wanted to hide his nervousness from those who were watching the newly arrived.

Together they walked down the stairs. Harry kept slightly behind Severus, like a second shadow, as he continued taking in the scene below them.

Any of those people was a possible suspect. If Harry had been the one to add the poison he would stay and watch his work unfold. So why shouldn't the actual guilty do just that?

"Severus' it's has been so long since we last saw each other." The booming voice sounded over the small talk around them, making both Potions Master and his assistant look at the speaker.

The man making his way over to them was short with immense belly. The enormous, silver walruslike moustache dominated the man's face, making him look like a friendly old man, albeit a little too eager as he walked over to them, dressed in dark purple dressrobes.

Coming to a stop in front of them, the man smiled widely. "I read your paper about your latest studies of the Wolfsbane potion, brilliant work. But it's not so surprisingly. Already when I taught you in your first year I knew you would go far. And see you now, not only do you have my old job, but you are also the personal potions supplier of our dark lord."

When the man's gaze landed on Harry a small frown appeared between his eyebrows. It was gone so fast that Harry was left wondering if he had even seen it, or if it was simply a part of his imagination.

Until this point the man had showed no sign of recognition him, otherwise Harry doubted that they would have been approached by him. But maybe it was not so surprisingly considering that they'd only met once before.

But Harry certainly remembered the man and the promise he had given the Potions brewer when no one had been around to hear it.

"Severus Snape, you sly dog. I remember when you were about to take your Mastery. You swore that never would you take in an apprentice. This lad must certainly be talented for you to take him in under your wing." Harry gritted his teeth when Slughorn shook his hand, though he resisted the urge of whipping it clean when the man let go of him.

If he opened his mouth Harry knew that he would say something that would have consequences for him.

Finally, when it became clear that Harry would make no move to interact with the man, Severus spoke up. "He's my assistant, not my apprentice. Furthermore, Harry Potter is also a seer."

Either the Potions brewer did really not remember him, or the man was a far better actor than Harry would have given him credit for. "A seer, how interesting. I don't recall you taking Divination when you were a student, Severus. Actually I can remember how you proclaimed in the common room, that there was no way one could gain knowledge about the future by gazing into a crystal ball. Of course you expressed yourself with more colourful words. Now I have to go and find Wendy Slinkhard, I have heard rumours that she is working on a new book which I might be able to help her with."

Harry watched as the man quickly departed from them. With a click of his tongue he drew Severus' attention from where the man had disappeared off to and to him.

Harry knew that Severus probably wanted to know what had caused the man's strange behaviour. It was something which Harry didn't want to share with anyone, for his own safety.

"Strange man." Harry mumbled, loud enough for Severus to hear him. "Can I go now? I promised Draco that I would find him and greet his fiancé." Harry shifted his weight from one foot to another, not having to fake his nervousness as he waited for Severus' answer. They had dragged attention to them the moment Severus had mentioned Harry's seer abilities.

Finally Severus relented. "Don't stray. And I don't want to hear that you have gotten into troubles or managed to set something on fire."

"That's one time and I was twelve." Harry protested, though relieved that Severus wasn't pressing for details right now.

Giving Severus a bright smile Harry parted from the man, not worrying about him.

Severus would probably find other Potions interested and discuss theories and cutting methods for the rest of the night, so he would probably not be bored.

It took Harry a little longer to locate Draco than he'd thought it would.

The blond was just coming off the dance floor. His hair had been slicked back and he was wearing pale blue robes with the Malfoy's family crest on it. At his arm a beautiful witch was latched on. She seemed to be a year or two younger than her partner and Harry cherished the fact that she was shorter than him.

Draco looked away from his partner, as if hearing something. When his eyes fell on Harry, an appreciating look entered them, probably because Harry was wearing what Draco had ordered his houseelf to lay out for him. Whispering a short comment to the girl, Draco led her over to where Harry was standing on his own.

"So Harry, I see that you do clean up nicely." Greeted Draco when they were close.

Instead of kicking Draco's shin as he first wanted to, Harry returned the smile. "How could I not, when you were so gracious to send one of your houseelves to assist me."

The look on Draco's face made Harry wonder what the three Lestranges had done to his friend after Harry had sent them after him. "It was only fair since you suggested that my dear aunt should help me to prepare for tonight." The blond's words were sugar coated, warning Harry to watch his back in the near future for Draco's retaliation.

"Harry, this is my fiancée, Astoria Greengrass. Darling, this is Harry Potter, my friend and a seer." Despite Severus' warning and the fact that this had been done before, Harry felt his muscles tense at Draco's words.

He didn't like the method Voldemort had chosen to use to reveal him to the whole world.

Draco's presentation made the witch look at Harry for the first time, though there was something sceptical in the look she gave him. "You are into crystal balls?" She asked, her voice laced with doubt.

Keeping his smile even Harry answered the girl. "No, the only time I let Draco talk me into trying to glimpse after something in such a thing, I ended with a headache." He grimaced, as he recalled the event.

"It's because you fell asleep during the experiment and hit your head against the crystal ball. And afterwards you refused further tests, so we didn't have a chance to see, if you can see into the future by other means."

Harry scowled at his friend. "Well, excuse me for being bloody tired after Severus had me running the whole day. And if you hadn't decided to awake me in the middle of the night, it wouldn't have happened." Harry argued.

It had happened not long after Draco had learned of Harry's visions. The blond had been sure that Harry's abilities would be able to manifest through other means.

Why the blond had nicked the crystal ball from the Divination class instead of borrowing or buying his own, Harry would never know.

"But how do they work?"

The question made Harry pause and wonder how he could best explain it. To those few he had explained it, had already believed in his abilities, or at least been open-minded enough to consider it a possibility. No matter how he looked at the girl, she didn't seem like that kind of person.

"I just get visions. Nothing specific, nothing can dictate what I'll see. Mostly they just pop up." He ended his explanation with a shrug.

Draco's fiancée seemed to be watching him in a new light, as though she could not decide if he was worth her attention or not. "It must be a useful gift." She said non commentary, but her words told Harry far more than he had thought they would.

She was still sceptical, understanding enough since he could show her no proof that he was not a deceiver. So, he couldn't expect invitations to tea parties from her, much to Harry's great relief.

On the other hand, the girl was a Slytherin, if nothing else. She didn't want to push him too far away from her in case that his claims proved to be true. At least Harry hoped that it meant that she would not seek to destroy his and Draco's friendship.

"Harry!" Pansy's squeal was the only warning he got, before a humansized weight was added to his right arm, pulling Harry off balance and nearly sending him crashing to the floor.

Before that happened Harry managed to steady himself, though a blush painted his cheeks as he noticed the amused glances they were gathering from those standing nearby.

"Hey Dray, Astoria, you have to tell me who did your hair, it's absolutely adorable. Now you'll have to excuse us. Harry here promised me a dance, and I'm not about to let him worm out of it." Already as she spoke, Pansy was dragging Harry away from Draco and Astoria, not giving any of them time to reply.

They went on the dance floor and Harry's body grew tense. Until now he'd believed that Pansy was joking when she'd claimed that she wanted to dance with him. "What are you doing?" Hissed Harry as they took the positions they'd both been practising.

"Why dancing of course, and saving you. I love Astoria as the little sister I never wanted, but unless she sees proofs on you being a seer, she's not going to see you as anything else than a squib. It'll only put Draco in a tight spot if you two are in the same room for too long." Pansy said as a new song was played and they started moving. "What were you talking about before I interrupted?" Came the question as Harry swirled her around.

"Draco was just retelling some attempts he made to figure out if I could see the future through something else than my visions." Luckily the blond had stopped when Harry had made it clear that he didn't like those experiments. Though no one had said anything about it, Harry suspected that Draco somehow knew that they reminded him of the experiments the Order of the Phoenix had made him go through.

At least with Draco Harry knew for sure that there had been no ill intention behind it.

"Draco was rather annoying when I met him earlier. He ranted something about you had sent Bellatrix after him, after he'd made sure that she and the two others would keep you occupied for the day so you would not be able to sneak off and hide somewhere."

Harry rolled his eyes. At least he now knew for sure that Draco had been the one to send the Lestranges after him. It was just a shame that it had backfired on his friend, but Harry couldn't find it in himself to feel sorry for the pureblood.

"Yeah, it's a shame that they stopped. The tree only managed to lay a few good whacks before they gave up their pursue of me." Harry watched, as Pansy's face dawned in confusion.

"But the only tree that fits that description is the Whomping Willow, and it doesn't allow anyone near it." Harry felt a grin split on his face at her open disbelief. "How can you be near it, without being covered in bruises?" The girl's eyes narrowed as if she expected said bruises to spurt forth at any minute.

Harry decided not to talk about those he had. After all, the Whomping Willow hadn't intended to harm him when it'd thrown him around. It was just not aware of its own strength and how fragile humans could be. "Actually the Whomping Willow is quite a friendly fellow. You just have to know how to tackle it and it is like an overgrown kitten." He said, smiling at his not so accurate description of the violent tree.

Hogwarts was vacated for students in the summer time, and Severus often used this time to travel around the world to gather those ingredients which could not be brought, or which he'd not trust others to harvest for him.

It was very rare for Harry to be brought along on such trips. Severus had made it clear that it was too dangerous, since Harry didn't have magic to defend himself with and the Order knew of his existence. Therefore, he'd often found himself left behind whenever Severus took off.

It was last summer that Harry had talked the houseelves in the kitchen to let him bring a basket of oranges with him outside. Considering how eager those small fellows were, it had not been a hard task.

Once out there Harry had noticed the Whomping Willow, and how the tree seemingly tried to trash anything which came within its reach.

But to Harry, it had looked like something else. He'd noticed how the tree was placed on its own, too far away to be able to interact with any of the other trees.

When he first had come too close to the tree, he had ended with a bump on the size of an egg on top of his head and in anger Harry had thrown one of his oranges at the tree.

As the tree returned his every shot, it had quickly evolved to a game between the tree and Harry. He would throw the orange the best he could and then the tree would return those it didn't manage to squash when it caught them.

In the days following Harry had become more daring, and ended up with quite the number of bruises. But it had been worth it. Now he had something to amuse himself with whenever he was on his own, and Harry knew, as it had been proved today, that the tree was more than willing to protect him from other people.

The song came to an end, making Harry want to whoop with joy as he led Pansy off of the dance floor. "Try to find the others, I think I will look around for now." Without bothering to wait for an answer Harry let go of the girl and slipped away from her.

Behind him Harry could hear Pansy call his name, but he let the distance grow before people began paying much attention to what was going on.

It wouldn't surprise him if his Slytherin peers had been ordered to keep an eye on him tonight. Though he considered them his friends, Harry knew that they were also Voldemort's followers. The man wouldn't want to lose an access after gaining it so soon.

But Harry had no intention about staying and being watched like a good boy. He'd found a reason for him to be here, making him glad that he had not managed to worm himself out of coming here tonight.

He stopped briefly at one of the tables, choosing a goblet of red wine and took it with him as he continued wandering around among the guests.

Harry soon found a shadowed corner, where the light didn't quite seem to reach. With his dark robes and hair Harry effectively fell in one with the shadows surrounding him.

Leaning back against the wall Harry started watching people interact with each other for now, bidding his time.

For his first time attending such an event, Harry deemed that it did not fall in his taste. His friends had made it sound like a part of a fairy tale when they had described how the ball was supposed to be.

Though Harry enjoyed spending time with them and learning something about the world he lived in, he would much rather entertain himself with a potion.

If not because he had a plan in mind, he might have sought out Theodore. The bookish Slytherin had made it clear from the very beginning that he was not one for parties, but as the heir of the Nott family, he was expected to attend those kinds of things.

Harry's gaze landed on a small group standing not too far from him, though none of them seemed to pay him any mind. The sound of the laughter easily bore over to him when one of them said something witty, but otherwise Harry had no idea of what was going on in that group.

In the small group of wizards stood Voldemort. The man was easily the tallest of the males, closely followed by the head of the Malfoy family, who was standing by the dark lord's left.

Voldemort was dressed in green robes, so dark that they could easily be mistaken for black. The man had the same silver embroideries as Harry, and every time he moved, they looked much like living snakes.

As if aware that he was being watched, Voldemort glanced up from the person he was talking with. It was almost unnoticed, but Harry had been paying a great amount of attention to the man since spotting him.

Despite having hidden, it didn't take long for Voldemort's eyes to lock on to his.

Red eyes travelled up his body with something akin to approval. The look made a tingling sensation spread from his stomach and to the tip of his toes and fingers.

The man quirked an eyebrow in silent inquiry. Harry glanced at the goblet in his hand before meeting Voldemort's gaze again and shook his head to the silent question he'd been asked.

Now that he thought about it, the goblet looked rather much like the one he'd seen in his vision. So did all the other goblets, so the one he was standing with could contain perfectly harmless wine.

Seemingly satisfied that Harry wasn't going to do something stupid, such as drinking of a possible poisoned wine, Voldemort turned back to the conversation around him.

Harry would have liked to stay longer and simply watch Voldemort, when he caught his target on the move out of the corner of his eyes.

A quick glance in Voldemort's direction assured Harry that the man was not looking at him. Knowing that it didn't mean that he was not under supervision Harry pushed himself away from the wall and walked away.

Passing a table Harry grabbed another goblet so both of his hands now were occupied. Having gotten what he needed Harry started moving towards where he had seen the man disappear to.

Harry let his feet carry him over the floor. He kept his gaze lowered, avoiding eye contact and thus giving no reason for anyone to want to interact with him. He was just another unimportant person, who had somehow managed to get an invitation to the ball and therefore, there was no reason for anyone to want to talk with him

It was a method Harry had used many times in the past in hope of avoiding attention. Without wearing the tell telling grey robes Harry found that the tactic was far more successful than it had been before.

It was no wonder that someone would attempt murder when the guests gave their surroundings so little notice.

Harry found the way he had seen the man slip through and followed the same way, changing his posture as he did so to the one he had used when he had arrived with Severus. People were less likely to be questioned about their business if they acted like they'd every right to be there.

The light in the corridor wasn't as bright as it had been in the hall. This was not a place one was supposed to venture out on their own.

The sound of footstep let Harry know where his target was. For one so stout, the man certainly could move fast when he deemed the need to be there.

Harry wished that he had thought of bringing his Invisibility cloak with him as he strode forward. But he had feared that he would lose it when he wasn't paying attention, and now he would have to make do without it.

Harry followed after the man deeper into the Ministry. Had it been any other situation Harry would have paid more attention to wonder where the different corridors and doors might lead to. As it was he kept track on the one he was following and on the route they went, so he would be able to find back afterwards.

Soon purple coloured robes entered Harry's sight. Why the man had chosen that colour of robes when he'd been planning to sneak around the Ministry, made no sense to Harry.

Still with the goblets in his hands Harry approached the wizard when the man paused in front of a closed door.

"Lovely night, wouldn't you say so." Harry said with glee as the man jumped. He had a hand placed on his chest, right over where his heart was when the man turned to face the seer.

"You are Severus' assistant, sorry but I think that I forgot your name." Slughorn said as a small peal of sweat rolled down his face. Harry's eyes followed the drop until it disappeared between one of the man's many chins.

The grin didn't slip from Harry's face as he offered the man one of the goblets he had brought with him. To his surprise the Potions brewer actually accepted the beverage but didn't drink any of it. "Harry Potter, sir. I wondered if you would lend me a bit of your time."

Harry sipped of imbibed of the wine, and after a slight moment of hesitation Slughorn followed the movement. "I don't see how I can be of any help to you. You are assisting a famous Potions master, someone like me, who didn't even get his mastery, can hardly be of any interest for you."

Harry had to admit that the man was a rather good actor. If not for the small slip-up back when they had been introduced to each other, Harry would truly have believed that the man had forgotten all about him. Perhaps it was a method so that Slughorn would sleep better at night, despite the hell he put others through with his actions.

"Yes, but you taught Severus back when he went to school. There must be tons of stories you can tell me about him. He even admitted to me that he wouldn't have gotten as far in life if not because his old Potions professor had been introducing him to people with the right kind of connections." Now Harry was making a shot in the dark. Severus had never even mentioned Slughorn before, Harry would have remembered it. But Slughorn seemed like that kind of man, who was more willing to talk if you petted his feathers the right way.

"I certainly can't take all the honour, but I have to admit that I played a role. Through my years as a professor I have helped many youths to reach their full potential here in life. To this day many of them still pay me respect for those small things I did for them."

Harry watched as Slughorn took another swig of the goblet, smacking his lips as if he tasted it for the first time. The man had relaxed, seemingly having forgotten that they both where at a place which none of them were supposed to be.

"But I'll have to get on now. If you have any questions about Severus' time as a student, you are welcome to owl me." The man made a shushing movement with his hands, as if he truly believed Harry to follow any orders that he gave him.

Harry was wondering how he was supposed to drag this out, when it felt like his heart gave a terrible wrench.

Grasping for air, Harry grabbed his chest, trying to keep his lungs working though they seemed to want freeze.

Harry bent forward, his hands searching through the pockets in his robes as he heard similar gasp from the only other person in the corridor.

Glancing up through his fringe Harry couldn't keep a stretched grin from his face, as he saw that Slughorn wore the same pained expression as the man from his vision had done.

Finding what he was searching for Harry popped the Beazore into his mouth, letting it rest on the back of his tongue though not swallowing. The thought of having something from a goat's stomach inside his mouth, made him want to retch, but Harry felt the influence immediately.

The pain from his lungs stopped and Harry was able to let fresh air rush in. Straightening up Harry looked down at the man who had fallen to his knees. Since Slughorn had consumed more wine than Harry, it didn't surprise him that the process went faster than it had done with him.

Spitting the Bezoar out into his hand, Harry grimaced at the aftertaste it left in his mouth. "Do you remember what I said the last time I saw you?" Harry asked, making the man look up. When Slughorn saw the poison neutraliser in his hand, he reached out for it.

For safety measures Harry stepped back. He didn't want to give the man a chance of surviving this.

"I told you that you would regret supplying the Order with that dammed potion. I would make sure that you die, and when it happened, I would be there and watch you." Slughorn had turned slightly blue around his lips and the man was wheezing for air, now laying flat on the floor since he had no energy left to keep himself upright.

"It seems like I was right, and I didn't even have to see this in a vision to get it to happen." Harry wanted to shout, but he also knew that the risk of being interrupted would be too big.

He didn't want to lose this opportunity of revenge.

"If I had any of the potion, and I thought that it would have any effect on you, I would force you to drink every batch which has ever been forced down my throat. Did you know, how painful an experience it was? You made it, so I had nightmares, I was unable to keep any food down and barely knew what was going on around me."

Slughorn was saying something, but at this point, no sound passed over his lips. "This is kind of fitting. You destroyed a great part of my life by inventing that potion for Dumbledore. Now I am taking your life with a potion. Both of them are painful, but only one of them is lethal."

Harry stayed silent for the rest of Slughorns struggles. He knew he should probably get moving so he wouldn't get caught on the crime scene.

But he needed to see this. He needed to know, that the one who had brewed a potion to destroy his life, would no longer be able to do him anything.

Only when the man hadn't moved a muscle for several seconds did Harry turn around. He didn't need to check to know that the man was dead. No matter how good an actor Slughorn might have been, not even he would have been able to fake such a thing.

The man was finally dead.

One more on his list was gone. If it continued like this, he might actually be able to reach the end of it before it would be too late.

The thought made him almost giddy until Harry looked over his shoulder and his eyes fell on the already cooling body behind him.

He was a murderer.

A cold blooded murderer.

Harry didn't regret what he had done. He didn't like that he had taken a human life so carelessly, but considering what kind of treatment he had received on those people's hands, Harry would say that it was justified.

Shuddering Harry turned his head back, speedily walking. He needed to get far away before the corpse was found. Panic would spread and they would be searching for someone to blame.

Harry had yet to figure out how he was supposed to deal with the aftermath.

Finding the hall Harry let his muscles relax he hadn't been aware that he had been tense. He had separated himself from the corpse, but still felt the need to further that.

Letting his gaze wander, Harry located Severus in the crowd. As he had expected, Severus had found a small group of Potions interested whom were willing to take on a Potions master when it came to discussing theories.

Catching the man's eyes Harry mouthed one word. 'Home'. Severus nodded in understanding. The man probably thought that someone had discovered Harry's squib status or that he simply was tired of spending his time in a place he hadn't want to be in the first place.

Knowing that Severus would let the message get to those who might be searching for him, Harry set for the room they had arrived in.

His heart was beating fast and the blood drumming at his ears. Harry kept his eyes straight forward, not wanting to catch anyone's eyes. What if all they needed was to look at him, and then know that he had just killed someone?

Harry felt like he had murderer hovering over his head, free for anyone to see if they would just take the time to look at it. He had to get away from here.

His footsteps quickened and Harry had to keep hold on himself to not start running.

By the time he reached the room they had arrived in, cold sweat had sprung out and his nails had dug so hard into the flesh in his hands that Harry could feel small drops of blood rolling over his skin.

With a shaking hand Harry fished out the pocket watch Severus had loaned him. It would bring him back to Hogwarts where he would wait and see what would happen.

Harry let his thumb run over the portkey, stepping inside the room. As he'd expected the room was empty, leaving him free to leave whenever he wanted.

A body crashed into Harry's sending him flying at the very moment he activated the portkey. The seer screamed as he felt the tug in his stomach, feeling arm wrap themselves around him.

Struggling against his attacker Harry was transported out of the room.

Harry hit the ground hard, not even wasting time with a curse. He trashed around, trying to get away from the hands holding his arms in an attempt to keep him on the ground.

His left leg was in pain. If felt like a giant had tried to tug at it, to see how far it could stretch before it would break. Harry was vaguely aware of the blood oozing from the hand sized wound on his thigh.

Too afraid to deal with the pain at the current moment, Harry concentrated on getting rid of his foe with every trick he could think of. He bit, he kicked and hit and he scratched wherever he could reach.

The male cursed, before letting him go. Harry opened his eyes, not sure why he had kept them closed until now. But he used his newly received freedom to create as much space as possible to his assailant, only stopping moving away when his back hit a cold wall.

In the dim light Harry saw how the male transformed, until he was nothing more than a rodent. Instinctively Harry threw himself forward, his arms reaching out in front of him.

The rat was faster and scrunched away before Harry could get a hold on it. He would have tried again, but the rat had already made its way through the bars and had disappeared out of sight, leaving Harry alone.

Getting his breath under control, Harry tried to understand what had just happened.

He'd been attacked when he was about to leave the ball, and Harry could make a good guess of who had done it thanks to seeing the male transform into his animagus form.

He was not at the portkey spot where he should have arrived. When he looked around in the small cell Harry realised why. Next to the pocket watch a silver spoon laid, something which Harry assumed was also a portkey. The two portkeys must somehow have inflicted each other, making it so Harry arrived in another destination than he was supposed to.

Harry assumed that this was also the reason to why his leg was also damaged now. Portkeys were not supposed to be activated so close to each other, especially not when their users were in contact with each other. How that was even possible with the wards Harry knew were inside the Ministry, he was not sure about.

So his situation was bad. Harry didn't know where he was, he was wounded and no one other than the one who had attacked him knew that he was there. And by the looks of it, the man would probably not come back anytime soon.

"Prongslet?"

The voice made Harry look up from the wound which was still bleeding. He really needed to find something to stop the blood with or he would soon pass out from blood loss.

In the cell across his own sat Sirius Black.

**Am I mean? yes.**

**Do I care? No, I'm currently doped with painkillers and just want to sleep the effect of.**

**This chapter is dedicated to DominaNocte, I know that this is not exactly what you wished for, but this is what it turned out to be, I hope that you all liked it.**

**So, I look forward to reading your response.**

**Here are two stories to read while you wait for an update from me**

**In Noctem» by theSevenYears **

**After his parents' deaths in 1927, Hadrian Peverell is adopted and taught the art of politics. With war looming on the horizon and the mask hiding his true identity at stake, he is forced to trust someone almost as dangerous as himself: Tom Riddle. Eventual HP/TR, DarkHarry**

**And**

**Lily's Secret» by Jelly340 **

**Abandoned by his friends after his name came out of the Goblet of Fire, Harry has to figure out how to survive on his own. Whether it's learning new spells, or finding out why he suddenly has fangs, Harry in in for another rough year. Father Fic.**

**Until next time.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**Beta: angelhitomie**

Outside the tent a strong wind was howling, as if a horde of werewolves was on a hunt on the night of a full moon.

Inside the tent, a small group was sitting around a table, currently eating something which looked like stew.

"We should be doing something more useful than this." Green eyes narrowed when his eyes fell on the speaker. He hadn't thought that anyone had survived when he and Draco had been rescued. Why hadn't anyone bothered to inform him that it had not been the case?

The Metamorphmagus' face darkened in a scowl when none of her companions bothered to answer her. "We should be trying to free Sirius. I know that my cousin says he is a tough guy, but this is You Know Who. Who knows what kind of torture Sirius is being put through?" She asked, letting her spoon fall down in the stew, so bits of the food flew over the table.

At the same time her hair changed from neon green to a midnight blue shade.

"Nymphadora-" At the look the woman sent him, the ragged looking man amended. "Tonks, you know that I want to save Padfoot just as much as you do, but Albus already explained how important it's to gain the giants' support. He promised that he would do his best to get Sirius back to us." The man grabbed her hand and gave it what Harry supposed was meant to be a comforting clench.

"Professor Dumbledore is a great man. If anyone can do, it'll be him." A big man said, his booming voice seemed to fill the whole tent.

He was about twice as tall as an average man, or so it looked when he sat down and was compared to the two others in the tent. His black hair was a shaggy long mane and a beard covered most of his face. The black eyes glinted like beetles and his hands were as big as dustbin lids.

There was no way he could be fully human with his size, as he took up the whole long side of the table on his own. Harry skirted away from the big man. The man was much bigger than Harry remembered his uncle was. He was at least thrice as wide as a normal human being.

Experience had taught Harry, that the bigger they were, the easier they were to anger, and the harder they hit.

His uncle and cousin had been two good examples for that.

The man holding Tonks' hand nodded, albeit he gave his agreement with more hesitation than the other male had done. "You are correct, Hagrid. We have to trust Professor Dumbledore on this. Meanwhile we'll try and complete this mission. The giants should be willing to listen to the message Dumbledore sent us with, if nothing else then because Hagrid shares blood with them."

At least it explained Hagrid's abnormal size. If Harry had to guess, one of the man's parents had been a giant, but the relation could go as long out as a grandparent, though Harry deemed it unlikely.

Blinking Harry found himself staring up at a stone ceiling he was becoming too familiar with in his opinion. By the change of light he would guess it had become day. Frowning Harry attempted to gather his thoughts despite the fog which seemed to have filled his head lately.

It meant that he had been in this cell for three days by now.

"Are you alright, prongslet?" Hearing the voice from the only other human being he had seen since being left in this cell, Harry turned his head to face the speaker, not having energy to do much else.

He was tired, so very tired. His body felt heavy, as if the energy had been zapped out of him.

Black sat pressed up against the bars of his own cell, blue eyes watching Harry with concern. The seer didn't bother to answer; he just wanted to ignore the other's existence. It wouldn't make Black disappear, but Harry allowed himself a small spire of hope.

Shivering Harry wrapped his dress robes closer around his body, as he'd know the cloth didn't do much good in keeping him warm. Though, he felt cold to the bone, Harry suspected that he'd developed a fever.

It could probably be blamed on the wound he had gotten upon arriving. He'd managed to stop the bleeding by ripping the bottom of his dress robes off and then proceed to wrap it around the wound on his thigh. It wasn't done professionally, but at least he hadn't died from blood loss.

He had attempted to clean the wound with some of the water that came with the food. Unfortunately, this wasn't the cleanest environment they were in, and without the right instruments or potions to clean the wound with, Harry wouldn't be surprised if it had gotten infected.

Since Harry wasn't going to answer him, Black carried on. It seemed like nothing Harry did could make the man shut up for more than one and a half minute. Harry knew, since he had been counting.

"Why hasn't anyone come to look for you yet? Perhaps they planned on placing you here all the time?" Black's words didn't even hold the slightest bit of mocking. If anything the man actually sounded worried though Harry couldn't see why the rebel would suddenly act like he cared for him.

But the man's words planted thoughts which Harry would have preferred to be without.

Voldemort had given an oath that he wouldn't lock Harry up. So why hadn't anyone come to let him out?

Harry had contemplated the possibility that people might not know that he was down here. Perhaps the rat had acted on its own accord.

But every time he moved his arm and felt the bracelet against his skin, he knew that it was not the case. When Voldemort had put the jewellery around Harry's wrist the man had made it clear that he would be able to find out Harry's location anytime he wished to do so.

It meant that he was being left here on purpose.

Sniffing Harry cleaned his nose on his sleeve, grimacing at the action. He hadn't felt this bad since he had left the Order. Usually, when he started to feel under the weather Severus had always been ready with a potion to cure it. The Potions master didn't want to deal with sick children more than he had to and potions could cure most ailments promptly.

Having nothing better to do, Harry glared at the bars. However unlikely it would be, he hoped that the heat from his glare would make the metal melt, leaving him free to walk away. At this point Harry doubted that his leg would be able to support him. Should it actually happen that he could leave, it's more likely that he would have to crawl than anything else.

His one sided staring contest was interrupted when one of the day's two meals appeared. As always the serving of food appeared without anyone bringing it, though Harry believed that it was the houseelves' doing. But the creatures had not shown themselves.

If Harry remembered correctly wards around this part of the dungeon stopped the houseelves from coming there. It didn't make much sense to have prisoners if they could just order a houseelf to free them and then take them away from here.

Without looking Harry already knew what they were being served. Some kind of gruel with water in a cup next to the bowl. Harry's stomach gave an uncomfortable clench at the thought of eating something so he bypassed the bowl and went for the cup instead.

Gulping down half of the water Harry abated the worst of his thirst. He could easily have drunk the whole cup, but he'd other plans for the water he had left.

Harry placed the cup on the floor, just within reach for when he would need it. Then he turned his attention to his wounded thigh. Hissing in pain Harry started to undo the makeshift bandage.

Silent tears were running down his cheeks when Harry finally reached the last layer. The cloth stuck on the wound and Harry didn't give himself time to hesitate when he peeled it off. He bit back a cry as some of the scab was ripped off and warm blood started running down his thigh. He noted that his hands were shaking when he reached out and lifted the cup.

Tilting the cup Harry hesitated when the water was about to run over the edge. He wasn't sure how much good the water did at this point. Looking at the wound it was clear to see that it had become inflamed. The skin around the wound was red and raised. It wouldn't surprise him if red lines would soon come from the wound. Perhaps he would have to cut off his leg though he didn't have any tools with him for such a task.

Forcing himself to keep looking, Harry tilted the cup the rest of the way. When the water hit the wound, it was a collusion between two temperatures of two opposite kinds, nearly making him black out in pain. The blood which had slowly been oozing when he undid the bandage was running freely now, taking a small amount of dirt and hopefully also some of the infection with it.

As soon as there was no more water Harry threw the cup away and started rebinding the bandage. He had stopped the tears, something he had taught himself when he'd decided that he wouldn't let his relatives have the joy of seeing him cry.

"You need to get something done about that leg, prongslet." Harry gritted his teeth. He'd managed to forget about Black's presence while he worked on his leg. Now however, there was nothing to distract him.

Personally Harry believed that the man was mentally unstable if not insane. He seemed to change his mood at the strangest times, and unlike the man's cousin, Bellatrix, it was not an endearing trait.

Though, he had attempted to ignore Black's presence, it was impossible to do so all the time when there were only the two of them down here. Therefore, it hadn't escaped Harry's notice how Black seemed to move carefully and the man excluded pained sounds whenever he moved over in a corner to relive himself. It made Harry wonder what the man had been put through while being alone here.

"Believe me, I've had worse." Replied Harry as he tied the final knot, perhaps a little tighter than it had been necessary. "The Dursleys didn't care when I was with them. And the Order members only did something when they thought I was dying or if they wanted to lessen their guilt a little." Bitterness seeped into his voice, but Harry didn't care. If Black wanted to talk with him, then so it be.

"Albus wouldn't have allow-" Before Black could finish his sentence Harry cut in.

"Do you know that Dumbledore has promised your friends that he'll try and free you?" The hopeful expression on Black's face was crushed by Harry's next words. "It basically means that they have given up on you. No one else will lift a finger to help you, and do you really believe that Dumbledore will put all his work on risk for one single man? They know that you are condemned to death and don't want to waste their resources on a case which is doomed to be helpless." Harry didn't see it fit to mention the cousin who had wanted to free Black. It didn't matter anyway. Even if she got a chance to try, Harry knew that she would fail.

Twisting his body so he was no longer facing Black, Harry closed his eyes. He had said his piece and didn't see a reason for further conversation.

Perhaps he would feel better if he got a little more sleep?

**)00(**

Long fingers were drumming against the desk's hard surface.

Severus had warned him, that the visions were not always fulfilled. That sometimes they had managed to do something which could avoid the outcome the seer had seen.

Voldemort had ensured that the few Frenchmen at the ball had stayed close to him, and far away from the wine. While he'd been assured that the Bezoar should take care of the poison, he'd preferred to avoid a scandal if possible.

Until the morning after the ball, he had believed that they had avoided the whole incident.

But the first Unspeakable who had gone to work in the morning had discovered a body in front of the lift going down to the lowest level of the Ministry of Magic, such as the Department of Mysteries.

If not because of the purple robes, the swollen corpse would have been hard to recognise. Apparently that was an effect of the poison that no one had foreseen.

Exactly what Horace Slughorn had been doing at a place where he had had no clearance to be, had yet to be cleared. The lift was too far away to have been found by accident.

The reason of death had been easy to determine. A goblet with still a little of the wine in it had been found near the corpse. A quick test had proved that the former professor had managed to get his hands on one of those goblets which proved to have been poisoned.

The whole thing could easily be explained. Slughorn had been drunk and strayed from the party. Since alcohol did nothing to lessen thirst he had probably gladly consumed most of the goblet's contest, unaware that it had been poison.

By all men's the case was over and he should let it rest.

But Voldemort found that there was too much to question about the whole affair so that he could just let go of it.

What had Slughorn been doing away from the ball? Voldemort knew the man from his time as a student at Hogwarts. He had been one of those whom Slughorn had had handpicked to his Slug Club, based on his bright mind he had shown back then, others had simply been there for the connections they had to other people whom Slughorn had found useful.

He had considered the possibility of Slughorn being the one who had planted the poison. He could have used the death of someone to sneak around the Ministry for whatever reason the man had had to do so.

But why would he drink of his own poison?

Unless there had been someone else with him. There had been no sign of struggling, which meant that the poison had been consumed willingly. Investigations had shown that no magic had been used, which excluded the Imperious curse.

So someone had been there when the Potions brewer had died, or at least close up to the time of death. Since no one had passed through the door he could only assume that the person had left afterwards, probably to return to the other guests where he or she would not catch attention when the corpse was found.

There were too many unknown variables, and he'd too few answers to the questions.

Stopping the drumming Voldemort leaned back in the chair.

His eyes strayed to the window on their own accord, where he'd a fine view over the lake and the Quidditch pitch. Green dots were moving round with high speed. It seemed like Slytherin was training for their upcoming match against the Gryffindor team in a week. Perhaps he would take the time to watch the match. The teens always seemed to play rougher against each whenever he was among the spectators, wanting to impress their lord.

He didn't care much for Quidditch. Back when he had been a student, his studies had had highest priority. But when his own house had been playing, Voldemort had shown up to show some support, and because it was expected for the students to come and cheer on their own team.

Perhaps he should invite Harry to come with him. From what Lucius had reported the seer had enjoyed his ride with the Malfoy heir, however short it had been. It would also give him an excuse for spending time with the seer.

In fact, he hadn't seen Harry since the Ministry ball, and even then they had not done anything but share a short look between them. Where Harry had been holding a goblet with possible poisoned wine. "Misty." At his words a small, female houseelf popped into the room and bowed deeply for him.

"What cans Misty be doing for Master dark lord?" The houseelf asked.

"Find Harry Potter and inform him, that I wish to see him." He ordered, standing as the houseelf popped out of the room.

Why had the seer taken a goblet when he had known the dangers of it? Though having Bezoars there had been the possibility that they would not work against the poison.

Before leaving for his mission Severus had reported the brief interaction between Slughorn and Harry to him. To Voldemort the interaction between them had seem strange, even by then.

One would think that the dead man would have been delighted at the prospect of meeting a true seer. Instead the man had fled shortly after being presented to Harry.

Further thoughts didn't come when the houseelf appeared at the exact spot it had left. Taking in the way it wrung its hands and how its ears had dropped Voldemort got a foreboding feeling. "Well?" He snapped, making the creature jump in fright.

"Misty is being very sorry, Master dark lord. Master Harry Potter is being nowhere to be finds sir. Not in his quarters, or anywhere Misty is being looks, sir." The houseelf let out a miserable sound and disappeared before the curse he sent could hit it.

Voldemort didn't bother to call it back to punish the creature for leaving without his permission. It seemed like he had much more important matters to take care of.

Hogwarts' wards had been adjusted so he'd been notified when Harry had arrived inside the wards that night. Since then he could not recall seeing hide or back of the youth.

From a drawer in his desk Voldemort took forth a bracelet which was nearly an exact replica of the one Harry was wearing, only wider and not quite as delicate looking. He had used it to ensure that the youth was still in the castle. Since he'd gotten a positive response each time Voldemort had seen no reason to check further up on it. And with Slughorn's death and dealing with the visiting Frenchmen Voldemort had hardly had any spare time.

Activating the tracking charm Voldemort left his office with long strides. His eyes watched the bracelet, as he processed the information he received from it. Harry was indeed still in Hogwarts, as Voldemort had already known he would be. But now that the bracelet was activated for more than just a few seconds, Voldemort's worry grew.

It seemed that Harry's health was not as well as he'd thought. If he had known where the youth was, Voldemort would have apparated directly to him. As it was he'd to walk the long way since he didn't know Harry's location. Luckily there were only a few places that a person could hide successfully from a houseelf. But none of those places were anywhere the seer had anything to do.

When Voldemort got his hands on the boy he would give him a piece of his mind. How was he supposed to comply his part of the agreement if the boy sought out danger on his own?

He hadn't thought much of it, when he had seen nothing of the seer those past days. Beforehand Severus had informed Voldemort that he'd set several chores for his assistant to do in his absence. It was an agreement between the Potions master and Harry. By doing so, the seer would be occupied while his guardian was away on the mission.

Now Voldemort was berating himself for not sending after the boy before now, or sending someone to check up on Harry for him. It wasn't uncommon that accidents happened when one worked with potions.

Harry really should have been more careful when he did his chores. He shouldn't be allowed to make a potion without supervision. Perfectly harmless potions could turn deadly if the seer got a vision under the process and missed any of the steps in his potion making.

It was something he would have to make clear to Severus. It was unacceptable. Voldemort didn't intend to lose the seer so soon after having gained something which could assure him the continued upper hand when dealing with Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix.

Passing the quarters belonging to the Potions master and his assistant and the Potions laboratories, the list to how Harry could have harmed himself lessened slightly. The Slytherin common room laid in another direction, and Voldemort knew that none of the snakes would dare to harm the seer. If nothing else then because he had shown a personal interest in the youth.

The plan about presenting Harry as a seer at the ball had worked well. Rumours tended to flow and considering who had been presenting Harry, no one had a reason to see it as a false claim. Despite his not clean blood Severus Snape was a trustworthy man, known for his almost brutal honesty. There had been no reason for him to lie.

Before long people would connect Harry with the article Skeeter had written about him when they visited Gringotts. The seer was under his protection and Voldemort didn't intend to lose anything he considered his. He didn't let go of anything before he was done with it and with this one he suspected that he wouldn't get tired anytime soon.

Voldemort recognised the route the bracelet was leading him. Currently there was one prisoner being contained there. Since Harry had already visited Black once Voldemort had assumed that it would be it, and had removed the spell that would alert him of the youth was being anywhere near the cells.

He would have to stop making incorrect assumptions when he was dealing with the seer.

The bracelet led him to Sirius Black. The man had been alive for much longer than Voldemort had planned on. He would let someone prepare a trial for the man. Black might be a traitor, but he was still a pureblood and the lord of a house. The man would receive a trial and afterwards he would be executed for his doings.

But the seer was not in front of Black's cell as Voldemort had expected him to be. The thing was no good if it simply lead him on a wild goose chase.

He should have tested whether or not the adjustments he had done to the bracelet would have affected the charms originally placed on the jewellery.

"He is in the other cell." At his arrival, Black had moved to the far end of his cell, reminding Voldemort of a hurt dog as he curled around himself in the corner. Voldemort's lips curled into a sneer. It seemed like Black remembered what happened when something went against him. And Severus had been so sure that his former classmate was unable to learn anything new.

Salazar Slytherin had been the one responsible for the dungeons and had once in time placed a spell on the cells. Unless one knew that they were there, you could walk straight past without noticing the prisoners right next to you. It was a safety measure to make sure that the prisoners could not be freed, just like the wards which stopped the houseelves from entering this part of the castle.

Later another spell had been placed so students could put their classmates into the cells, lock them up and then walk away.

Now where it had been pointed out to him, Voldemort turned and was able to see into the cell opposite Black's. The spell didn't stop the prisoners from seeing each other. It helped breaking them, seeing the result of what they would be put through soon.

There was indeed a person in the cell, which was supposed to be empty. Voldemort recognised the black robes with silver snakes embroidered on it. The person wearing the robes lay still and if not for the faint shivers running through the body, Voldemort would have believed him dead.

"_Open_." The hissed command was obeyed immediately, the bars disappearing, as if they had not been there in the first place. It was a safety measure Salazar had placed in his time to assure that neither he nor his kin would be locked up here. After all, only those who belonged to the line of Slytherin could speak the tongue of the snakes. The trait might skip a generation but it would always surface again.

Voldemort could remember that once there had been an heir, who had not gained the trait. When he got an heir and it was sure that the son was able to speak Parseltongue, the father had been killed so that the rest of the family would not have to live with the shame.

He crouched down next to the seer, who had yet to react to his presence. The green orbs were hidden under closed eyelids and his breath was shallow. A sheen of sweat covered the paling skin.

Reaching out Voldemort found Harry's pulse, not wanting to use magic before he knew what had caused this.

His gaze soon fell on a makeshift bandage, tightly bound around Harry's left thigh. He had used what looked to be a part of his dress robes, but with the blood and dirt clinging to the fabric, it was hardly recognisable. But other than that obvious wound, Voldemort was unable to spot any damage. However, that didn't mean that there was nothing.

Letting his gaze wander, Voldemort spotted two objects, which had nothing to do in the cell. One was the pocket watch, the portkey which had transported Harry to and from the Ministry ball. Another one was a silver spoon.

Not sure what had been done to the spoon, Voldemort decided to bypass both objects for now, having more important matters to focus on at the current moment.

Carefully Voldemort sneaked his arms under Harry's knees and his neck. When he was sure that he had a secure grip, Voldemort rose, brining the seer with him as he did so.

A pained groan worked its way over Harry's lips, both otherwise he did not react. Voldemort frowned at the weight in his arms, it was much too light for his liking. He knew that Severus had a tendency to forego eating whenever he was caught up in one of his projects. It seemed like the Potions master had passed it on to his assistant.

But if Harry had spent the last few days in the cell, it could also explain why he was at a less than satisfying weight, something which Voldemort intended to change. But first, he needed to get them away from there.

Now where he had Harry, Voldemort did not need to walk back. Instead he spun around on the spot and apparated.

With Harry clutched tightly to his chest, Voldemort appeared in his personal bedroom. He let the wards reach out and touch his core, before feeling them withdrawing. If he had been someone else, he would have been sent directly back to the cells they had just left. And since Harry was with him, the wards did not recognise the seer as a treat.

Moving Voldemort walked over to his king sized bed. The bed sheds drew down, leaving space clear for him to lay the seer down on the bed, which Voldemort did with uttermost care, as if he was handling a rare and fragile artefact.

Seeing that Harry was not going to die in this moment, Voldemort straightened. "See to it that Narcissa Malfoy knows that I am in need of her assistance. Make sure that she understands that it is urgent." He said to no one in particular. Still, Voldemort knew that Lady Malfoy would get his message. And if she knew what was best for herself and her family, she would heed the order.

Despite not having any medical training, other what he had learned from the books he had read, Voldemort started on the work. A spell took care of Harry's clothes, leaving the male in his birthday suit.

Voldemort let his eyes wander over the body lying on his bed. He had already known that Harry was thin, though the robes he usually wore did a good job in hiding it from a normal watcher. The ribs were not sticking out, but they were starting to become noticeable under the skin.

The skin was not unmarked as Voldemort had thought it would be. Instead small scars, the biggest on the size of his pinkie was spread out over the body. His eyes flickered up the bolt formed scar on the seer's forehead. Harry had explained how he had used the pain from the self-inflicted wound to keep him grounded when he fled from the Order. To do something so dramatically he would have to have been desperate. But the only way to know that it would work was if he had done something similar to himself in the past.

Just how many of those scars were his own doing?

For one so dark haired Harry had fairly little body hair, Voldemort noticed as his gaze swept to the bandage which still covered the teen's wounded leg. Knowing that Narcissa would soon be there, Voldemort summoned a silk fabric and placed it over Harry's crotch. If the seer awoke in the middle of this, Voldemort did not want him more panicked than necessary.

Manually Voldemort started undoing the bandage. Normally he would leave such a task for others, or simply use magic, but he didn't know what had caused this wound. He did not want to worsen the damage which had already been inflicted on the youth, intentionally or not.

When his fingers brushed over the skin, Voldemort could feel the heat. He had noticed it when he had been holding Harry, but now it seemed to be radiating from him.

Voldemort angled the leg so he could better get the bandage off. The action pulled a pained groan from the brunet on his bed, and Harry mumbled something which sounded like trolls, though Voldemort had no way of being sure.

A polite knock on his door sounded. Voldemort did not look up from his work as he made the doors open, allowing the witch entrance to his bedroom, a place which very few could claim to ever have set a foot in.

"You called, my lord." Narcissa was a beautiful woman, whom her son shared many traits with, something most people oversaw since he looked so much like his father.

She was a tall and slim woman, with pale skin and the same blue eyes as her cousin possessed. Her hair colouring was different from the rest of the Black, blonde, which made her fit well with her husband and son.

As a third daughter from a side branch of the Black family, Narcissa's only duty to her family had been to marry someone who could bring most profit. She had outdone all expectations when she had been married to Lucius Malfoy, connecting two powerful families.

But like other born females from the Black family Narcissa had been unable to lean back and simply enjoy her life. Where Bellatrix was a master in duelling Narcissa had decided to study to be a medi-witch. But she had never taken the exam which would have allowed her to claim the title.

It did not stop Voldemort from summoning her when he found himself in need of her expertise.

Voldemort stepped aside, letting Narcissa get a clear view of the body lying on his bed. When she got a pinched look on her face, he knew what she was thinking. Harry and her son were roughly the same age. It wouldn't surprise him if she was imagining the Malfoy heir in Harry's place.

"Heal him." The order left no room for argument, not that any would be voiced. No matter how much Narcissa usually spent her time gossiping with other pureblood women, she was professional.

Though having let Narcissa take over his spot, Voldemort did not leave. He knew that Harry would be in good hands. Even if Narcissa had not wanted to treat the youth, she would have recognised the seer and the life debt her family owed him.

He watched as the bandage was removed, placed aside to be destroyed when she was done. "What has caused it?" Voldemort asked, not needing to specific for the witch to know what he was speaking about.

The wound looked far worse than it should at this point of time. Voldemort assumed that Harry had obtained it somewhere between the Ministry ball and now. Unless he had dosed himself with potions to be able to walk around and dance unaffected by the pain.

Dark bruises decorated the body, concentrated around the chest and the upper arms. They were on an early healing state. It was most likely that Harry had gotten those when the seer had used the Whomping Willow to make the Lestranges stay away.

"It looks like he has been splinched." Voldemort's eyes narrowed at the witch's conclusion. What magic Harry had, could not be used for apparating. And he would have known it if anyone had tried to remove the seer from Hogwarts by that means of travelling.

The only magical transport Harry had used, was when he portkeyed from the Ministry.

Remembering the silver spoon he had seen back in the cell, Voldemort wondered if that perhaps was the cause. If it was a portkey and had somehow been activated while Harry was using his own portkey to get back to Hogwarts, it could explain the wound and how the seer had ended in the cell. The two portkeys could in theory have influenced each other enough for that to be a likely explanation.

That, however, raised a whole new set of questions which Voldemort had no answers to. Such as who had brought the other portkey, and had the seer been willing or had it been a kidnapping attempt?

The last seemed most likely, but until the seer awoke, Voldemort would refrain from making assumptions.

Narcissa worked silently, first speaking when she got the results from the diagnostic charm she had cast earlier. "It seems like the wound's current state is because of lingering of a poison in his blood. I can't say for sure what kind of poison it's, but the charms shows that it should be easy enough to get rid of." She reported before starting to remove the poison from the seer.

Unlike the witch Voldemort knew what poison she was talking about. Why the seer would do something as stupid as drinking what he knew could be poisoned, was a question he would get answers to later. Perhaps Harry had been forced to drink the wine. But if he had been forced, then how had he managed to use the Bezoar? It could not be a good murderer if they let their victim die.

Unless Harry had not been meant to die. Perhaps it was meant as a warning. To show how easily his enemies could attack what was his?

As soon as he had his answers, Voldemort intended to act. He would show the world why it was that they should fear a dark lord.

And he would start with Black's execution.

Silently he watched Narcissa work. Since she had removed the poison from Harry's blood system she turned to the wound. Narcissa mumbled spells at a rapid space, keeping her wand steadily pointed at the wound.

The changes happened fast in front of his eyes. After the first three spells, the wound already looked healthier, the effects of the poison disappearing. Finished the fifth spell, Narcissa lowered her wand as the wound started to heal much faster than it was humanly possible.

"It will take a few hours, but then his leg should be as good as new. I'll bring something to bring down the fever and then I'll see if I can find something for those bruises. Perhaps something which can be mixed with a scar reducer? He should be fine when he awakes, but I would like him to have two days bedrest. He also needs regular meals with nourishment. He's nearly two stones underweight for someone at his size, and he is much too small for his age, though it is too late to change that."

A clean bandage was wrapped around the healing wound, stopping blood from seeping out on the bed. "He'll also need a bath, but I suppose that it'll have to wait. What he needs right now is rest so magic can be allowed to work. There are a few potions, which can speed up the process but since Severus is not here and it's not something which can be kept on storage, I suppose that we'll have to make do without them."

As she spoke, Narcissa spelled new bed sheets on, making sure not to wake the teen lying on the bed.

"Leave us. You'll be noticed when he has awoken so you can make a check up." The witch knew better than to speak against her lord and curtsied. With a last glance at the teen she left the room, probably to return to whatever she had been doing before she had been summoned.

Now where they were alone, Voldemort took his former spot by the teen's side. Noticing the way Harry shivered, Voldemort pulled the sheet up under the brunet's chin, knowing that he could have done so with magic. But somehow it felt more right when he did it by himself.

Conjuring an armchair, Voldemort settled down, intending to wait there until Harry rouse from unconsciousness.

**So, opinions?**

**And before anyone complains about the lack of actions, think about this: Voldemort has finally gotten Harry into his bed. Now we'll see if he will be able to keep him there.**

**Next: Parseltongue, flying pillows and Voldemort learns about the traitor in his ranks. And is that a kiss I am seeing in my crystal ball? **

**I have half in mind to either let Harry wake up with Voldemort in the bed, or with him being alone in the room, perhaps I shall just flip a coin. But leave a review and tell me what you think would be best. Both leaves Harry with plenty opportunity to get into troubles. **

**Since my friend typed this chapter for me, I've allowed him to recommend some stories for you to read. If you don't like them, blame Mortimus. **

**Boys Doing Savory Magic **

**Author: iWannaPetYourPetPeacock **

**I'm Not Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf **

**Author: iWannaPetYourPetPeacock **

**Until next time **


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

**Warning: Angelhitomie asked me to add a warning about the risk of a possible heart attack, now you can consider yourself warned.**

**Beta: angelhitomie**

His mind rose to the world of conscious much sooner than Harry was prepared for. He wanted to stay in the darkness, where he would be free from thoughts and impressions, but something was stopping him from doing just that.

It seemed like something had changed while Harry had been out of it.

Unlike the last time he had been awake, he felt comfortably warm. His leg was not pulsing with pain; in fact he could ignore the soreness coming from the spot where the wound was. The duvet over him was warm and heavy, urging Harry to stay in his half awake half asleep state.

Without opening his eyes Harry tried to access his situation. Somebody had healed his body, and Harry doubted very much that Black had any hand in it. Either he had been unconscious for longer than he thought, or someone had done it. The latter seemed more likely to him.

Form what he could tell, he had been removed from the cell. The bed he was lying on, felt like it could swallow him whole with its softness. It was definitely an improvement from the last three days. It also told Harry that it was not his own bed. In fact, Harry was fairly sure that he had never been in a bed where the covers felt like they were made of silk.

His mouth was dry and he felt like his tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth. And his stomach felt like someone had twisted it one time too much. It was probably an effect of not eating for the past few days, though he couldn't say for sure.

Shifting Harry became aware of two things.

One, he was naked. That was the only explanation to why he could feel the bed sheet brush against his skin like a lover's cares at places which would normally be covered by clothes. Someone had undressed him while he had been unconscious, and whoever had done so had not bothered to redress him with new clothes.

Harry supposed that he should be thankful that the bedcovers at least were laid over his body.

Second, he was not alone in the bed. Someone was lying pressed against his side and something heavy and warm was draped over his waist, keeping him pinned to the bed. It felt like an arm and it probably belonged to the one behind him.

Harry breathed in sharply, before forcing his breathing back to the deep and even rhythm it had been before. Whoever was in the bed, probably knew that he was no longer asleep, but still Harry couldn't make himself give up the game.

He couldn't remember a single time where he had shared a bed with another person. Harry had always been a private person, he didn't want others that close. And now someone had dared to sneak up on him while he was at his most vulnerable.

Knowing that he had already blown his cover, Harry decided not to wait for his bedpartner's move. Since he lay on the side, his right arm was not of much use.

His left arm however was free and able to move.

Fast as a snake Harry elbowed the one behind him. His elbow came in contact with a body, but it definitely didn't feel like something that belonged to a human.

Not taking the time to consider what this meant, Harry rolled away from the other, not caring about the way his body protested about being forced into sudden movements after having been kept still for so long.

He had been closer to the edge than Harry had assumed, when he suddenly found that there was no more bed to roll on.

Harry hit the floor with a hard thud, taking down the duvet and something else with him, as he hit the hard surface, biting his lower lip hard to not let any sound escape him. He rolled a last time, so he was lying on his back, sprawled out on the floor and unable to move due to the heavy weight trapping him to the floor.

The body had followed with him, lying on top of him and effectively hindered him from fleeing as he had planned on doing. And now Harry new for sure that it was not a human he had been sharing a bed with.

"_You're awake, little seer_." A warm tongue flickered against his ear shell, startling Harry out of his wild running thoughts. His eyes flew open at their own intention as his head twisted to the side to look at the one who had spoken.

All of Harry's muscles tensed when he found himself face to face with a large green snake, which looked to be roughly twelve feet long. Its head was so close that Harry with ease could see each of the scales on it.

Figuring that he would already have been dead if that was what she wanted, Harry gradually managed to force his muscles to relax and calm his hectic breathing.

It helped that he had spoken with a few garden snakes back in Surrey, but this one was much bigger than what Harry was used to, at her thickest point, he would say she was as thick as a man's thigh.

Also, the other snakes he'd known had not been as dangerous as he knew that she could be.

Nagini was Voldemort's familiar and a snake which Harry had done his best to avoid in the past. He knew that if she attacked, he would probably be able to stop her. But that meant that he would have to reveal himself as a Parseltongue, something he had no plans about doing.

Until this moment Harry had done a good job in avoiding the snake, but now he found himself closer to her than he had ever thought that he would be.

He nearly went cross eyed when the snake's head moved so it was right in front of his face. Even with her upper part lying on him, Nagini's body still took up a great part of the bed. And Harry found out that what he had thought was an arm holding him was a thinner part of Nagini's body which was still draped over him.

Much to his relief, Nagini was on top of the covers while Harry was under them, otherwise he was sure that he would be a lot more freaked out than he felt at the moment.

"_Don't just lay there and stare rudely at me. Make yourself useful and scratch me_." Not sure what else he was supposed to do, Harry lifted one hand. Only when his fingers touched the warm scales did he remember that he was not supposed to be able to understand what she had said.

His fingers obediently continued the task of keeping the snake occupied while Harry tried to find clues which could tell him where he was.

He was in a superlative room, with a floor of dark mahogany which emphasized the silver and Slytherin green that decorated the walls.

French doors probably lead out, the other door could be the entrance to a bathroom. And when he strained himself to look over the bed, Harry thought that he saw something which could be a walk-in closet, if the open door and the clothes he could see was anything to go by.

Unlike the office, this room didn't lack a personal touch.

Looking out of one of the windows, Harry realised that he was still at Hogwarts. Unless someone had went through the troubles to put up an illusion which looked exactly like the Quidditch pitch and a part of the Forbidden Forest, so he would believe that he was still on the school's grounds.

Harry let his head fall back, meeting the floor with a thud. A small pain erupting where the back of his head connected with the hard surface.

He couldn't stay here, Harry comprehended. Just because he was at Hogwarts, it didn't mean that he was safe, as he had liked to believe, Pettigrew's attack had showed him that. And his stay in the cell proved that the oath meant absolutely nothing.

It was best he left, and the oath he had given Voldemort could be dammed for all Harry cared. The man had failed badly to keep his end of the deal, so what reason did Harry have to continuing listening to his orders?

It did not mean that he would stop reporting his visions. Harry would make sure that Severus would get to know them. Especially about the one Harry had had while being locked up. He wouldn't risk Severus being surprised by the Order members' presence near the giants. Theoretically Harry knew that his guardian could take care of himself, but it didn't mean that Harry believed Severus invincible.

The thought of leaving Severus, Draco and his new found friends behind was painful. However it would be for the best. Harry couldn't live somewhere where he knew that he would not be safe. Not only because of traitors, but also because of those who were supposed to protect him weren't there to do their job.

He would disappear into the muggle world. He didn't like it, but it would be easiest to hide that way. Among wizards he would stand out like a sore thumb because of his inability to use magic.

Among muggles he would just be another anonymous face among an endless amount of others.

But before he could take that step, he would have to get free of this possible death trap Nagini was having him in as she was wrapped around him. As it was, there was little to no chance that Harry would be able to leave unless the snake let go of him on its own, something which seemed rather unlikely at the moment.

Stopping the petting and removing his hand, Harry quickly got the attention of the big reptile. Her poison yellow eyes were staring directly at him, making her dislike for him stopping known to Harry without a single word or sound.

Harry swallowed, knowing that there was a good chance that he would regret what he was about to do.

But sometimes one had to offer something if they wanted to archive something bigger.

"_Your strength is great, Nagini. Could you please let go of me? I doubt that Voldemort would like it if I suffocated because I can't breathe._" If it had been possible, Harry would have believed that the snake was gaping at him.

At least he was pretty sure that she had understood what he'd said. For him it was hard to figure out when he spoke and when he used Parseltongue. Perhaps it was because he did not use it often, and he had never really gotten the chance to hear other people speak it.

Considering that there was only one other person who spoke the language that Harry knew of, it was not really that surprising.

"_You are a speaker_." Despite her exited tone Harry found the grip on him lessening, though she didn't let go of him as he had hoped that she would. "_Voldemort said that there was no more of his kind out there. I would have heard it if he had produced a youngling._"

"_No, we are not related._" Harry responded, thinking back to the family tree he had seen in the Potter vault. The British purebloods were renowned for their inbreeding. Therefore, it was surprising that there was no direct connection between their two families since they descended from the Prevell brothers.

Nagini seemed satisfied with Harry's answer. "_Good, never bring a grown hatchling to your nest. It may kill you and take over the den. A mate on the other hand, can help keeping the nest warm on cold nights and days_."

The words made Harry choke on his spit. "_You mean that this room belongs to Voldemort_?" Taking another look from where he lay on the floor, Harry had to agree that the room was fit for one of a high standing.

That seemed to create a whole new set of troubles which Harry wasn't sure he would be able to deal with.

Since this room probably belonged to Voldemort's living space, it would be harder to sneak out of it than it had been with the Hospital Wing. As the dark lord Voldemort was used to assassination attempts so he wouldn't be careless to the let the windows be unprotected and Harry doubted that he could simply wander out of the door without anyone stopping him.

A few seconds later, the second part of what Nagini had said was registered by his mind. "_I'm not his mate_!" Harry spluttered, feeling his face heat up though he could not say if it was from anger, embarrassment, or something else.

Not even Harry could deny that Voldemort looked good. One had to know the man's age to know that the dark lord was far older than late twenties.

Nagini looked disappointed at his statement, but huffed "_To tell the truth, I don't see what good a mate would do, if you can't get hatchlings. But Voldemort has always been strange, liking males instead of females_."

Harry gaped at the snake, not sure how he was supposed to respond to this, when someone came to his rescue. "_Are you done blabbing to the little seer, Nagini? Move aside, he's not used to someone as magnificent as you. You shouldn't scare him like that_."

Harry bit back an angry retort as he was forced to crane his neck in an almost unnatural manner to be able to look at the one who spoke. The door near the fireplace was open and by the steam coming out around Voldemort, Harry knew that he had been correct when he had guessed that it was the bathroom.

The dark hair was damp and as his eyes travelled downwards on their own accord Harry realised that the dark lord was wearing a black bathrobe, with nothing under it if he should judge by the way it was open on the chest, giving Harry a fine view of the skin.

It gave Harry plenty of time to stare at the toned and firm chest. Considering what else he could be staring at, Harry guessed that it was not the worst place to let his gaze be.

Mortified Harry realised that he had been checking out Voldemort, and he quickly turned his face away though he didn't do it fast enough for Voldemort not to see the blush colouring his face.

Nagini unwrapped herself from Harry and crossed the room to get to Voldemort with the speed of a snitch. Her sudden movement had pushed most of the duvet aside, and Harry, remembering his still lack of clothes, drove for the duvet and wrapped it securely around himself.

Right now he was wondering if the ground could open and swallow him.

"_He spoke_." Nagini happily hissed as she followed Voldemort over to where Harry still lay on the floor. The seer glared at the snake as he pushed himself up and away from the man, only stopping when his back hit the corner created by a wall and the bed.

Voldemort looked down at the snake, wearing a bemused expression. "_Humans tend to do that, my dear. He was probably surprised to find you here. I also believe that I told you to inform me when he awoke_."

Now both snake and wizard were near, effectively cornering Harry, leaving him no possible opening to flee through. "_I would, but then he freaked out. And you said that the little seer shouldn't leave the nest so I had to do something. And he spoke, like you do_."

The man's red eyes were back at Harry, a calculating glint in them. "_Say something_!"

Stubbornly Harry turned away from the man. This was his own fault. If he hadn't spoken to Nagini this would have been avoided. But at that time it had seemed like a good idea, especially since he'd believed that he would have been gone long before anyone came to check up on him. How was he supposed to know that Voldemort would be in the bathroom belonging to this room?

After the whole thing with his stay in the cell, Harry didn't feel the slightest bit inclined to indulge the man's wish.

Cold and strong fingers closed around his chin, forcing Harry's head back to its original position. While he had been lost in thoughts, Voldemort had taken the last step to close the distance between them and was kneeling down in front of him. Harry was willing to bet anything he owned that this was not a position that the dark lord was used to take.

Harry found his eyes seeking out Voldemort's red orbs on their own accord, glad that he had Occlumency shields. At this point he would not put it behind Voldemort to actually try and use Legilimency on him to get the answer the man wanted.

Silently Harry dared Voldemort to do just that. The man would get the same result as those in the past who had tried to gain access to Harry's mind had gotten.

Either Voldemort did not notice the dare, or he simply ignored it. Harry was too focussed on the man himself to ponder more on it.

This close Harry had a perfect view of Voldemort's chest. His eyes followed a drop of water which started from the hair and at last disappeared under the bathrobe. He could even smell the shampoo the man had used, it reminded him of the forest. The smell was not something he would ever have connected with Voldemort. The man seemed like the kind to go for a more masculine scent.

On the other hand, Harry doubted that anyone would dare to breathe a word if Voldemort went out smelling like perfume and flowers.

And even if they did, they wouldn't live long enough to finish the sentence.

"_Do you understand what I say?_" The tone was impatient warning Harry that this was his last chance. Before what, he didn't know, but Harry could imagine that most would have been tortured for denying the man an answer for this long.

Why couldn't Voldemort just take his silence as an answer that he didn't understand what was being said. But it seemed like Voldemort trusted what Nagini had said. If Harry had known that this would have happened he would never have spoken to the reptile in the first place.

"_Yes_." When the word was said, Harry could feel how the fight went out of his body, as if he was a balloon which had just been punctured. His shoulders slumped and though he wanted to look away or close his eyes, Harry found himself maintaining eye contact with Voldemort.

This was a secret Harry had never shared with anyone before. Not with Severus, who would have been a logical choice since he had managed to keep Harry's other secrets for so long. Or Draco, who had been his friend for many years.

Not even Dumbledore and his cronies had managed to pry the secret from him.

Harry shuddered at the thought of what would have happened if the Dursleys had known that there was more freakish things about him, than just the visions he had had while staying with them.

It was something Harry had planned on taking with him into the grave, but now the cat was out of the bag.

Finally he let his eyes slip away from Voldemort, waiting for whatever response which would follow with his revelation.

"_Look at me_!" Gritting his teeth Harry found himself following the order, much to his great regret. Green clashed with red and Harry barred his teeth at the man. He didn't care that it was an animalistic move, right now he just wanted his antagonism to be known.

"_Let go_." Unlike Voldemort, Harry didn't quite manage to put any force behind his words. The man didn't move, but watched him without blinking.

Harry didn't need to be able to read Voldemort's mind to guess what the man was thinking about. "_Interesting. One would think that after such a long time, the trait would have died out._" The grip on him changed, being more gentle than retaining.

"_Have you considered that there might have been others before me, but unlike your ancestors, mine didn't flaunt it for the whole world to see_?" Harry asked, thinking about the book Voldemort had found when they'd visited the Potter vault.

Apparently Voldemort could follow Harry's way of thinking without Harry needing to say anything. "_It makes sense. Normally when a light wizard finds a book they do not understand, they either destroy it or lock it up somewhere where no one but they will be able to find it. But a Parselmouth would have saved it for future use, knowing that there would be other generations gifted._"

The faraway look in Voldemort's eyes disappeared and Harry once again found himself squirming under the weight of the man's gaze. "_Who else knows about this_?" One would either have to be dumb or deaf to not hear the warning in Voldemort's voice. Severus might have gotten off with a light punishment for keeping Harry's visions a secret since they'd both done their best to make sure that they benefited the dark lord. But there was no way that Voldemort would let people get away with keeping more secrets from him.

Especially not something Voldemort believed concerned him.

_"I have never told, and no one I know of has been able to figure it __out_." Harry glared into Voldemort's eyes, daring the man to say anything against him. Why it was so important for Voldemort to know, Harry would try and figure out when he wasn't dealing with a dark lord.

"_From now on you'll only speak Parseltongue to me, unless there is a third party who needs to be a part of our conversation_."

"_That is-_" Whatever protest had been on Harry's lips was cut off when Harry found himself scoped up and placed on the bed with more force than had been necessary. "I told you to stop manhandling me_!_" Protested Harry as he stopped bouncing on the mattress, the duvet still held securely around him.

All thoughts about modesty disappeared when Harry found Voldemort over him. The man had a leg on each side of Harry's waist, using them to keep the seer in place. The hands were on each side of Harry's head, effectively caging him in. "_And I informed you, that you would not be in doubt when I manhandle you. You are supposed to be resting, which includes staying in the bed, no matter what. And what did I tell you about what language you'll be using_?"

Seething over the way he was being manhandled and spoken to, Harry let go of the duvet and let his hand wander over the bed's surface. When his fingertips brushed against something Harry closed them around the item. "_As you want. But I'll still not let you manhandle me_."

With those words Harry smacked the pillow against the side of Voldemort's head. Because of the awkward angle his arm was in and the pillow's softness it hardly made an impact on the man hovering over him.

Before Harry could even blink the pillow was ripped out of his hand and fingers closed around his throat. The grip wasn't tight enough to suffocate him, but Harry certainly didn't need to check to know that the hand indeed was there.

Voldemort's face was now so close that their noses were nearly brushing against each other. Harry was able to spot flakes of red which seemed darker than the rest of Voldemort's eyes.

"_Be careful, little seer. I allow you much more free rein than I do with anyone else due to your usefulness. But don't you mistake. If you overstep the boundaries you'll suffer the consequences_."

Harry knew that it probably wasn't the smartest move, but his upflared temper refused to let him bow down to the threat. "_Screw you_." If he had been able to control his ability, Harry would have spoken English, as he had done not even minutes before. But with Nagini's presence and Voldemort speaking Parseltongue, Harry hardly had a say in that matter.

The grip around his throat tightened, until Harry started to fight for breathing. He could still get air in, but it was far from enough to make him still his struggling. Both of his hands had been seized above his head, making sure that Harry was unable to scratch or otherwise attempt to make Voldemort loosen his hold on him.

The man's eyes had narrowed until they were nothing more than red, burning slits.

"_I told you that-_" The words disappeared before Harry could figure out what the man had meant to say, and the seer's struggles which had slowed down, started with renewed strength as he realised what was about to happen. His breathing speeded up, and when he started to inhale the mist which had formed around him, Harry broke into a coughing fit.

Voldemort was no longer anywhere to see, and Harry could not feel the hand he knew had been around his throat only a second ago, not that the change mattered much as he tried to get enough air into his lungs to calm his fast beating heart.

Panic took hold on him, despite him trying not to allow it. He could not feel anything, couldn't smell, the only thing he could see was the mist and his own breathing was the only sound for him to hear.

He might as well not be existing.

Around him dark shapes took form in the mist, but they were too far away for Harry to see who or what they were. He didn't know why they never seemed to come near enough for him to see what they looked like, but he was thankful that they kept their distance.

He had seen this place enough times to know that he wouldn't like any of the shapes coming near him. Though they didn't look like anything he knew of, the effect those things had on him whenever they came too close, was the same as Harry had read that the dementors had whenever they came near something living.

As if knowing what he was thinking, the odd shapes started drawing closer. Harry took in a sharp breath, icy air filling his lungs to the border of painful.

"James!" Harry squinted his eyes close, as a new scene started to form around him, still affected by the mist which made it look deformed.

"Run, Lily. I will hold him back!" Had he been able to move, Harry would have covered his ears, though he already knew that it would not have much use. Nothing he ever did could stop what was playing out in front of him.

Therefore Harry opened his eyes, hoping against hope that this time would be different.

A tall woman with thick, dark red hair that fell to her shoulders and bright green almond-shaped eyes clung to the other person visible to Harry.

The male shared a disturbing semblance to Harry, and yet he looked so different. He was tall and thin, with hazel coloured eyes and black, untidy hair that stuck up at the back. It held a great resemblance to how Harry's hair had been, before the seer had let his grow long. To make it even creepier, the man was wearing the same round, and black rimmed glasses Harry himself had once owned.

Both wore the trademark black robes for death eaters and thrown in a corner of the room two white masks lay abandoned.

Though not being able to hear any explosion, Harry saw it when a door passed through his body. It hit the wall on the opposite side of the room and crumbled to dust. He hadn't even flinched when it had been blown off its hinges, having been in this vision plenty of times before.

The pair had gotten their wands forth and were pointing them at Harry, or whatever was behind him.

A hand clamped down on his shoulder, using force to turn him around as the first curses were thrown. Fear shot up through his spine, though Harry didn't know who had grabbed him. It shouldn't be happening, since he wasn't an actual part of the vision, and yet it did. Like every other time he had been forced to watch this scene.

Harry blinked, finding himself back in the bedroom, gasping for air though there was no longer a restricting grip around his throat.

Seeing someone above him, Harry flinched back in the mattress, not being able to move anywhere else.

It took a moment for his brain to realise, that he really was out of the vision, and that he had a dark lord seated on his lower body, effectively pinning him to the bed. As if it wasn't bad enough, said dark lord was watching him with an expression that clearly told Harry, that he wasn't going to get out of this without some explanation.

A plus was that his hands were free, though Harry didn't see how he could do much good with that.

Needing to know that this was real, Harry pushed himself upwards, letting his lips crash with Voldemort's catching dark lord by surprise.

Even when the vision involved him, Harry didn't feel anything when he did something on his own invention. Feeling the harsh lips against his own, made Harry realise that he indeed was back in the real world and not caught up in another vision.

A hand slid into his hair, gripping it and holding him in place as the warm mouth started moving lightly against Harry's clamped lips.

The body was pressed against his own, brushing against his hardening cock, and realisation dawned for Harry.

Shame over his action washed over him like a wave. He was_ not_ being turned on by this. To make it even worse, this was Voldemort, the dark lord and a man who could easily have been his grandfather if not because the family tree proved otherwise.

With a whimper Harry tried to move away, but the other male was not having any of that, and the grip on his hair held Harry in place.

It felt like his nerves had been set on fire. Harry couldn't recall a single time, where anyone had kissed him like this, and his mind was fighting his own body for who was supposed to be in control.

Knowing that he would regret it if he let it go any further Harry wrenched his lips free, wincing at the few strands of hair he felt loose at the sudden movement.

"Stop it!" He cried out.

He heard a chuckle from the male above him. Opening his eyes, not really sure about when he had closed them, Harry glared up at Voldemort, noticing the fire that had lit the man's eyes.

"I had a vision." He rasped out between deep breaths.

As he had expected the words were enough to make Voldemort pause his movements and his eyes cleared for any emotions that had been in there not even a short moment ago. "_Evaporate_." At least the man was too caught up with the chance of a new vision, to bother correction what language Harry used.

Sucking in a deep breath, Harry mind was rambling for a vision. He had no intention about telling Voldemort about what he had just seen. The oath could be dammed.

But that wasn't the only vision he had had.

"_The Order is sending a group to try and convince the giants to change sides." _He closed his eyes briefly, before snapping them open._ "Hagrid, who has some giant blood in him. The Metamorphmagus and a man who called Black Padfoot. They were in a tent, eating dinner, but I didn't see more than that. Oh, it seems like they have given up on rescuing Black. Dumbledore has promised that he will do his best, but that basically means that they have no hope for him_." Despite the fact that Voldemort had not corrected him the last time, it didn't mean that Harry was willing to take any chances.

"_Did you see anything _else?" At Harry mute shake of his head, Voldemort rose from the bed with swift movements and headed for the door. "_When I return, we will discuss exactly how you ended in that cell. Nagini, keep an eye on the little seer and make sure that he doesn't leave the bed_." The snake sighed deeply before unrolling and leaving her spot in front of the fireplace to join Harry on the bed.

Satisfied that his order was being followed Voldemort left without a backwards glance.

"Jerk!" He spat, throwing a pillow which hit the already closed door and fell to the floor with a thud.

He was interrupted from yelling more insult when Nagini butted her head against his shoulder. "_Stop screaming. If any of us has a reason to be annoyed, it is me. I had to move away from a perfectly warm resting place and stay here with you. So make up for it and scratch me_."

Sighing Harry let his fingers run over Nagini's scales. Voldemort was probably long gone now, so it wouldn't do much good to continue until he screamed himself hoarse.

It didn't mean that he would forget the fact that he had spent the last few days in a cell. Or that he would allow the dark lord to order him around.

But the most important thing was that Voldemort had not learned of the vision he'd had.

It was one that Harry did not plan on sharing with anyone, no matter how many times he was forced to watch it, or how much he saw, and no promise would be able to change his decision.

Harry groaned and let his chin fall to his chest when he realised what he had actually done to make sure that he was out of the vision.

Perhaps Voldemort would have forgotten all about the kiss by the time the man returned?

Somehow Harry could not even make himself believe that.

**)00(**

Voldemort did not leave right away. He heard something hit the closed door behind him. Presumably another pillow. Luckily the houseelves always made sure that there was plenty of those in the bed, so he wouldn't have to worry about the seer leaving the bed just to fetch one pillow.

When no further sounds occurred bare one muffed word, which didn't reach his ears fully because of the thickness of the door and the protective magic between them, Voldemort could only assume, that Nagini had managed to do as he had ordered her to.

Pinching his nose Voldemort otherwise kept a blank expression.

Things certainly hadn't gone as he had expected they would when he had fetched Harry from the cell. Harry had awoken after five hours of unconsciousness. By all means the youth should not have started to stir yet. Because of this, he had not been in the room when Harry joined the world of living.

But the sight which had met him when he had left the bathroom, was something he could get used to. Pale limbs, wrapped up in a silk bed sheet, like a gift which was waiting for him to unwrap it.

By the blushing and how the seer had been busy covering his body from view, it had almost been like dealing with a virgin. Though marriage was important among the purebloods, it was not unusual for the wizards and witches to gain experience before the wedding night. As long as no scandal was created, everyone was willing to let the children enjoy their freedom.

To find someone untouched at the boarder of adulthood, was a rarity, something which could catch his interest.

The kiss had peeked said interest. It had been desperate and so inexperienced, as if Potter had had no idea of how he was supposed to carry it out.

If not because the whole thing was such a delicate matter, Voldemort wouldn't have hesitated to go the whole way. But the seer's ingenuousness might have caused Harry to be scared away, something which Voldemort was not willing to risk.

He would keep the seer by his side, and perhaps this was the way he should go. By doing this, Harry would be bound closer to him than even his death eaters were. It was the best way to ensure that the seer wouldn't leave him once the year was over.

And it certainly helped, that Harry was not unpleasant to the eye.

It would be a risky rate. While a relationship would bind the seer to him, it would also make Harry a possible weakness which his enemies would use against him.

For now Voldemort would ensure that Severus was warned. The dark lord had no intention of searching for a new Potions Master because the man had a run in with the Order's envoys.

While his spy was accompanying the two Dumbledore supporters, Voldemort had no intention of letting the spy reveal their existence to the rest of the world just yet.

And while he was at it, he might as well send someone to keep an eye on Harry in his absence. While Nagini could easily kill a full grown wizard with a single bite of hers, Voldemort preferred it, if there was a human to make sure that Harry stayed in bed. The seer's actions just now and the escape attempt back in the Hospital Wing proved that the youth needed to be kept under constant supervision to make sure that the seer would not attempt something stupid.

He would let Narcissa know that the youth had awoken. She would be able to stay with him until Voldemort returned. And she would make use of the time to check up on Harry's health, as she had already promised to do.

Transforming the bathrobe into comfortable robes Voldemort left his quarters. Once he returned, he fully intended to start on his interrogation of Harry. Before this day was over, Voldemort intended to know how Potter had managed to land himself in that cell.

And not to forget the original reason to why he had went looking for the seer in the first place. He still needed to know what kind of connection there had been between Harry and Slughorn. And if Harry knew anything about the way the Potions brewer had died.

**)00(**

Not long after Voldemort had left, a houseelf popped in. Wordlessly it bowed before placing the items it had brought with it within Harry's reach. With one last bow the creature disappeared, leaving Harry to figure out what this meant.

Foregoing the tray with what looked to be food for now, Harry went straight for the clothes the houseelf had left on the bed. His face fell slightly when he realised, that it were not robes, but nightclothes. Apparently Voldemort had been serious when the man had ordered him to stay in the bed, and was not about to make it easy for him to leave.

Which was also why Harry had to find a way to distract Nagini so the snake would be able to stop him.

"_Could you please look around so I can dress_?" Since Nagini had no reason to follow an order, Harry figured, that he might as well try and ask nicely.

The snake huffed, obviously not happy with the request, but she turned her head nonetheless. It didn't escape Harry's notice that she was facing both the door and the windows, meaning that he wouldn't be able to run away while she was looking the other way. "_Foolish little seer. You are supposed to shred your skin, not put more on. You humans are strange_."

When Nagini turned her head, Harry had already dressed and was back under the duvet. For a while the snake said nothing, content to watch him with slit eyes.

Before any of them could start a conversation, the door Voldemort had left through, was slammed open, making Harry jump in surprise.

"Honey, I am home!" Following the singsong voice came Bellatrix Lestrange, her eyes positively dancing with mirth when they landed on Harry. "There you are, Harrykins. You have worried your Auntie Bellatrix. That is not something a gentleman ever does to a lady." The witch scolded as she skipped to the side of the bed Harry was in.

Warily Harry leaned back against the small mountain of pillows behind him as Bellatrix already had one knee on the bed, staring intensely at him. "Itchy Harrykins has been a naughty boy, you have been avoiding me. But now our lord has made sure that we can spend some Auntie and nephew quality time together." Harry eyed the woman warily, wondering what she was doing here without her minders, also known as the two male Lestranges.

Without a care for how it could look like if someone walked in on them, Bellatrix flopped down on the bed, nearly landing on Nagini in the process. The snake let out a series of hisses, about what she thought about women who dared to disturb her like that. Luckily Harry was the only one who understood what was being said, though he could have done without it.

"So dearest nephew of mine, tell your beloved Auntie, what you have done so you need to be watched?" The witch asked, rolling onto her back so she was looking at him upside down. Despite her relaxed posture the witch's hand didn't stray far from her wandholder. And like Nagini Bellatrix lay so she easily could keep an eye on the doors and windows while speaking to him.

When Harry made no move to spill the beans, Bellatrix pushed her lower lip forward, making her look much younger and less sane than she was. "Well, if you don't want to share with me, I suppose I'll just have to entertain you until our lord returns. I know, how about I teach you some spells?"

A mad grin spread on her face as she hopped up from the bed, her previously bad mood seemingly forgotten. "You do know that I cannot do magic, right?" Harry asked. It wouldn't have surprised him if the witch had somehow managed to forget that fact.

"Wingardium Leviosa." Harry sat straight up as the pillow on the bed started hovering in the air over his head. "Of course I haven't forgotten, little Harrykins." His eyebrows twisted. Why was it that people kept mentioning his lack of height? It was not like it was his fault. "But when I am done, you will know what the curses do, which will give you more reason to dodge when you see them fly in your direction. I would have loved to use bunnies as an example, but I don't think that the dark lord will be happy if we get blood on his belongings."

The witch got a mournful expression before it moved aside for her grin. "Now, eat and drink and make sure that you watch the show."

Obediently Harry placed the tray with food and drinks on his lap. He saw no reason to disobey when he already had a wand pointed somewhere above him. Besides the smell of food had reminded him about how long it had been since he'd last gotten a decent meal. And roughly anything was better than what had been served in the cell.

**Since it has taken so long to get the last few chapters written, I have decided that next one will be up on next Thursday or when we round 50 reviews. (533 reviews, for those who can't count). **

**Go read something of Wyrdsmith, any of her work will do since it is all brilliant.**

**Until next time. **


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

**You know, I had a chapter written to send it to my beta, but when I saw how the reviews kept coming, I thought I would add something to it and change a few details, thus making it lengthier to show you all how happy your response made me.**

**In the end this chapter turned out to take much longer than I had planned on, sorry about that.**

"Sectumsempra." When Bellatrix moved her wand downwards, the remaining pillows were ripped apart. White down filled the air, like snow. For a short time Bellatrix was hidden from view, though her crackling left no doubt that the witch was still in the room.

Harry had given up on eating after the first spell had been fired, sending bits of the destroyed pillow everywhere, including into his food and drink. Perhaps it was just as well since Harry doubted that he would have been able to stomach everything on the tray.

Certainly not after Bellatrix had latched into a colourful description of what those spells she showed him would do to an actual human body.

One thing Harry now knew for sure, in the future he would dodge much faster when a spell headed his way. Bellatrix could be oddly motivating when she described how she could make one's gut turn themselves inside out with just a flick of her wand.

If she would just stop looking like she wanted to test them on him, she would probably have made a decent professor.

When the down settled down, a smile tugged in the corners of Harry's mouth. There was not an inch of the room which was not covered in white. It looked as if someone had started a blizzard in there.

From under the bed Harry could hear Nagini's angry mutterings, but because the amount of noise Bellatrix was creating, Harry was unable to hear what the snake was talking about. Perhaps she was still mad that Bellatrix had attempted to hit her with some of the curses, though the witch claimed that it had been purely by accident.

"What is going on here?" Bellatrix's crackling came to an abrupt end and two heads whipped around to face the door, which none of them had noticed had been opened.

In the door Voldemort stood, dressed in dark blue, almost black, robes. Harry blushed, not really sure why he had expected the man to still be dressed in the bathrobe he had left in.

Hearing her master's voice, Nagini emerged from her hiding place under the big bed. "_Voldemort, do something about that crazy woman. Why did you let her into your den? She keeps destroying the pillows and it is impossible to nap with her here. Can I eat her_?" Nagini complained as she curled up behind Voldemort, so that the dark lord was between her and Bellatrix.

The witch, however, paid no attention to the hissing snake. The instant she had realised who had entered, Bellatrix had put her wand away and slit down in a kneeling position. If she was trying to hide, she was doing a bad attempt. With her black dress and hair she wasn't exactly invisible among the white down which covered the floor.

"Where is Narcissa? I believe that it was her I sent for, not you, Bellatrix." As he spoke, Voldemort stepped fully into the room, his eyes taking in the changes that had happened in the short time he had been gone.

Even from where Harry sat in the bed the seer noticed how Bellatrix shifted, suddenly seeming rather uncomfortable with the situation. However, when she lifted her head, the crazy grin was back on her face. "Since my sister has yet to show up, I guess that she is still trying to locate her son. It seems like my nephew discovered his animagus form the same moment your message arrived. And if he happened to receive a little help, well that is just what happens." Bellatrix said with an air that left no doubt, about who had given said help.

Hopefully Draco was alright. Harry had no idea about what kind of spell could force someone into their animagus form, but he hoped that there would be no harmful consequences. At the same time he wished that Draco would come by so Harry could get a chance to see what Draco's form was.

But a glance at Voldemort told Harry that the man was not finding this amusing. Or perhaps he was, but with his expressionless face it was irksomely hard to figure out what was going on in that head of his. "Send Narcissa here. Then you will find Draco Malfoy and transform him back to his human self before any incidents happen." For a moment Harry was reminded of a parent scolding their child. Bellatrix certainly played her part well, as she sulking stood from her kneeling position and left.

Now where they were alone, if one ignored Nagini's presence, Harry suddenly found it hard to keep still. He fidgeted with the end of his too long sleeve as his eyes refused to stay at one spot for more than a second.

"_Harry_." The seer tensed the moment he registered the shift from English to Parseltongue. "_It might please you to know that Severus now has been warned and he will watch out for those three in your vision_." The down disappeared as Voldemort spoke, leaving Harry with very little to distract himself with. "_What happened in here_?"

That was not the worst thing to start out with, considering what else Voldemort probably wanted to discuss with him. "_Bellatrix decided to teach me some curses so I would know why I should dodge if I ever saw them heading my way_." He answered, easily slipping into Parseltongue.

If he had known it would be so dammed hard to face Voldemort after kissing the man he would never have done so. But he had needed to know for sure that he was out of the vision and that had been one of the times his body had acted faster than his mind.

Unfortunately, Harry knew that he was not one of those who could borrow a Time Turner, even if he asked nicely. It could have been perfect to go back in time and simply make it so the kiss never happened. Frowning Harry decided against it. He remembered something about a risk of being crazy if your past self saw your future self, or something like that.

Nagini only seemed to happy to return to her spot in front of the still lit fireplace as Voldemort took seat in the single wingchair which stood next to the bed.

For now Harry decided to focus on more positive things than him being locked up in a Mental Ward at S. Mungo's.

Such as the fact that Severus was safe. Those Order members wouldn't be able to take his guardian by surprise now where Severus had been warned. The Potions master would be able to avoid the trio and hopefully still get his mission completed. It meant that it would not take long before Harry would be able to see Severus again.

Harry knew that Severus was far from insurmountable. But it was hard to get rid of childhood beliefs. Severus had been the one to help him away from the Order and had later taken Harry under his wing. Even before he had allowed himself to start trusting the man, Harry had admired Severus. It was probably only because his childhood innocence had already left him at that point in life that Harry hadn't hero-worshipped the man.

Remembering that he was not alone in the room, Harry looked over at Voldemort, meeting the man's gaze head on. Apparently that was what Voldemort had been waiting for. "_Who had the second portkey which was also in the cell_?"

Harry opened his mouth, but no sound passed over his lips. The man was blunt. Harry had expected that Voldemort would start out soft and slowly encircle the subject he wanted to know about. At least Voldemort was not mentioning the kiss, though Harry found himself feeling rather spilt about that fact.

"_Since you are asking, then I guess that it did not happen on your command_." Harry said slowly, watching Voldemort closely as he spoke. The dark lord nodded curtly, but otherwise he gave no answer. It made Harry feel marginally better to know that Voldemort had had nothing to do with the ambush.

Logically Harry knew that Voldemort could not do it because of their agreement, but seeing it made it seem more real to him.

But Harry wouldn't be surprised if Voldemort had made sure that there were plenty of loopholes for him to use in the contract. It was after all what Harry had done when they had renegotiated. True, he had to rapport his visions, but Harry had made sure that those he had had before entering the agreement could stay with him. And since the one he'd had was a repeat he had seen over years, Harry didn't feel the smallest urge to blurt out about it to Voldemort.

Clearing his throat Harry felt his face heat when he realised that he was taking way too long with answering Voldemort's question. At this rate the man might start believing that Harry was trying to hide something from him.

"_Pettigrew ambushed me when I was about to leave the Ministry. My guess is that we activated our portkeys on the same time and since he was holding on to me it affected my predetermined destination, so I ended having Black as a loving company for a few days_." He said, his voice laced with sarcasm. "_Wormtail managed to leave before the wards fell in place, and I haven't seen him since then_."

Voldemort didn't wait for Harry to continue, as he turned his head to speak to Nagini. "_Find the rat, and when you have him, bring him to me_." A shark like smirk spread on the man's face. "_If he gives you any troubles, don't hesitate to do what you want to persuade him_."

The snake left without protests. Now that Harry thought back he could recall several times where Draco had told him about how the big snake was seen hunting a rat through the corridors of Hogwarts.

He didn't feel the slightest bit bad when he silently hoped that Wormtail would annoy Nagini so much that she would simply swallow him in one go. Hopefully she would not end up getting a stomach ache from doing that, but with what kind of person Pettigrew was, it wouldn't surprise Harry if that actually happened.

Once the snake had left, Voldemort turned his attention back to Harry.

Figuring that he might as well get answer sto something that had bothered him for a while now, Harry pushed his sleeve back so the bracelet he wore came into view. Despite what had happened the last few days, the jewellery looked as new as the day it had been put on him. Considering what small children got their hand on, it wouldn't surprise him if one of the charms on the thing meant that dirt would not stick on it. "_I thought that this was supposed to alert you if I got into troubles_."

Perhaps he should have asked sooner just how well the bracelet worked. But Harry had not thought that anything would happen and by the time it had, it had been too late to get his answers. He had certainly not been about to ask Black such a question.

"_I assumed that you would know to keep yourself out of troubles while your guardian was away_. Also, I when I used it to check up on you, it was too see if you were back in the castle."

"_Next time I'll make sure to inform you before something like this happens. Give me a break, will you? Being a seer doesn't make me omniscient_!" The way Voldemort spoke, made it sound like it was Harry's own fault that this mess had happened. "_I was stupid enough to believe that you would be able to keep your oath. I was much safer when the whole world didn't know what I am. Back then Dumbledore wouldn't try anything so blunt, because though the goat wanted me back in his service, he wouldn't have done something to drag your attention to me_!"

Reaching behind him, Harry remembered that there were no more pillows for him to throw with. "_It has already been explained why such a move was necessary. This way it will be easier to protect you, and people are less likely to question you when you are accompanying me_."

Turning Voldemort's words over in his head to make sure that he really had heard what was being said, Harry's eyes narrowed at the man. "_What do you mean with I will be accompanying you_?"

By the way Voldemort leaned back and crossed one leg over the other; Harry wasn't doing a good job to intimate the dark lord. "_You do not expect that I will let you run around freely after recent events? When you are not with someone I have said good for, you will be in my presence, where I will be able to keep an eye on you and make sure that nothing happens to you_." The man said, looking every bit like the cat that got the cream.

"_I-you can't- It's a violation against human rights_!" Harry spluttered. Trying to figure out a way that would make Voldemort take back his words.

The man leaned forward, resting his chin lightly on his fingertips. "_Make no mistake, Harry Potter. You belong to me. I do not intend for Dumbledore or anyone else to get their hands on you. If that means that you will be spending every moment of your time in my presence for the next ten months, then so it be_."

Groaning Harry let himself fall back, landing flat on his back with a small huff as he had forgotten that there were no pillows behind him. "_You can't be serious_." Mentally he was berating himself for not thinking of that when they had renegotiated. It was, without doubt, one of the loopholes that Voldemort had made sure to leave open for himself.

At least it was better than being locked up somewhere in a tower.

"_I am. And this time, there will not be any renegotiation_." Mulling over Voldemort's words Harry knew that it was true. Now where they had been in the vault, Voldemort had already chosen what had caught his interest in there. And since he didn't doubt that Voldemort would have something else up in his sleeve, Harry was not about to prolong his time in the man's service.

"_Was there anything else you wanted, or can I've some time alone?_" Harry asked when he felt that the silence had been going on for long enough. He just wanted the man to stop staring at him like that, it was seriously starting to creep him out.

"_Why did you have traces of poison in your body, when you knew that some of the servings of food would be toxic_?" Harry mentally swore when his body did not only flinch, but also tensed at Voldemort's words. That excluded lying to the man. At the current moment Harry doubted that he would be able to come up with a lie which he could make sound truthful to even himself.

Which meant that he had to tell the truth, the consequences be dammed since Harry knew that he would not be allowed to stay silent.

"_Because, otherwise I couldn't have gotten Slughorn to drink it himself. The man might have acted like a fool, but he wouldn't have drunken something I brought if I didn't do that. Besides, I had the Bezoar, which took care of the poison before it could do any damage to me_." Harry's mouth kept moving, but no more sounds came out. Annoyed he grabbed his throat, glaring at the dark lord. There was no doubt that Voldemort stood behind his inability to suddenly produce any sound.

"_You fool_!" Voldemort stood, forcing Harry to crane his neck so he was able to keep their eye contact. Something in the man's gaze made Harry regret that he had opened his mouth. "_The Bezoars did not take care of the poison, it changed the effects and slowed them down. When I found you, you were already burning up with a fever. A few more days sickness and dehydration would have killed you. Tell me, what makes it worth killing one man, that you have to put your own life at risk_!?"

By the end of his rant Voldemort's breath was coming out in harsh puffs. That, more than anything else, told Harry just how much the whole thing had affected Voldemort. Until now Harry couldn't remember a single time where the dark lord had lost his cool like that.

Harry felt like he had shrunken to two inches. Somehow he could feel the anger and disappointment roll off the man in waves.

Lifting his gaze from his lap Harry took his time to look at Voldemort. The man was angry, that much Harry had expected, but Slughorn's death didn't seem like the cause. Harry had thought that he would find himself in Azkaban as soon as he had admitted his crime.

Deciding not to waste the opportunity, Harry continued speaking before Voldemort would be able to come up with a punishment. Luckily he found that his voice was working again. He didn't understand why, but he wanted Voldemort to understand why he had done what he had.

"_Slughorn was one of those who supported Dumbledore and his followers while I was forced to stay with them_." Unable to meet Voldemort's gaze any longer Harry let his eyes fall so they rested on his folded hands in his lap. If that had been Slughorn's only crime, Harry would happily have informed Voldemort about the man's alliances and left it at that.

It was just unfortunate that Slughorn would have done anything to save his own skin, and the man had knowledge of some information Harry wasn't willing to let anyone get their hands on.

"_The potion Draco witnessed Moody give me, was invented by Slughorn. He did it because Dumbledore paid him and because he wanted to know if it was possible to increase the amount of visions I had._" Not caring about the other person in the room, Harry curled up in himself, shivering despite the comfortable temperature there was due to the lit fireplace. Harry suspected that it had been kept ongoing by magic, no one had added wood to it, and yet it burned just as strongly as it had done when he had awoken.

"_I was eight when I was allowed to meet him_." Harry smiled meekly at the memory. The fit he'd thrown to get it had been worthy of Dudley. It had also made most of those who had been supposed to look after him convinced that he was truly screwed in the head. Well, those who had not already supported that belief.

"_I asked why he hurt me, but received no answer._" Instead he had gotten something else. Something Harry refused to share with anyone else since it would make the murder of Slughorn pointless. "_So I couldn't let him live. Slughorn had the formula which can turn my life back to the hell it was._" Harry's voice rose in intense and he started yanking at his hair, trying to ignore the burning feeling which was building up behind his closed eyes.

"_I don't want to see more visions than I already do. I hate not knowing when I'm watching something that will happen and when I am a part of the present. Children are supposed to be protected and kept out of war and yet, I had to watch people being killed or tortured. Over, and over and over. It doesn't matter if I knew those I saw, I hated it and yet it didn't stop._"

Hands closed around his wrists and gently they pried his hands free of his locks. At the same time Harry found himself pulled flush against a warm body and half onto the person's lap.

Though his logical mind knew who this person was, Harry didn't care. He simply turned around and buried his face in the person's shoulder as he allowed his tears to run free.

The hands which had hold his wrists let go. Harry stiffened, fully expecting to be pushed off the lap. It was only when he felt the hands settle on his neck and lower back, rubbing soothing circles that Harry found his muscles relaxing.

Not sure what else to do with his free hands, Harry fisted them in the robes in front of him as another assurance that he would stay where he was.

How long they simply sat like this, Harry couldn't tell. When the tears had finally stopped falling Harry found himself unwilling to move. How strange. He could only remember Severus holding him like this after a nightmare or a particularly bad vision. But his tears had always been ignored by everyone else.

But breathing in deeply and not finding the usual scent of fresh ingredients and different potions reminded Harry that this was not his Potions master. If Severus had been able to make butterflies come to life in his stomach, Harry would have been seriously worried about his own sanity.

Not that this gave him much assurance that he had any of it left.

Lifting his head from Voldemort's shoulder Harry simply stared at the spot he had rested his head against. "_I made a mess on your robes_." He mumbled, refusing to raise his voice. The whole episode seemed so unreal to him. He wasn't supposed to cuddle with people, or cry his heart out at the dark lord. It was simply wrong.

Then why did it feel so right?

Confused by his own emotions, Harry didn't protest when Voldemort placed a finger under his chin and tilted his face to eye level. "_Can you provide the memories to support your claim that Slughorn supported the rebels? And I also want the ones from the times you spoke or otherwise interacted with him at the Ministry ball_."

It was the first part of Voldemort's question which made Harry hesitate. He had already admitted his own guilt in Slughorn's death, so it wouldn't do him any good to start denying that now.

But there was only one memory he had where Slughorn could be connected to the Order. It held too much information he was unwilling to share. Especially now where Voldemort knew of the role Slughorn had played when he had worked with the Order.

"_Do you have a Pensieve I can use_?" He finally relented, deciding that he could at least show Voldemort the first part of the memory, so that the man would get the proofs he needed without getting anything of true importance.

**)00(**

The witch was silently fuming though none of the portraits she passed on the third floor would be able to see the difference.

Bellatrix had always been talented when it came to spells of any kinds, though she preferred the offensive ones. She knew, since she had spent a great amount of her time helping her sister to come as far as she had.

Between that, her own training to become a mediwitch and grooming Draco into a heir worthy of the Malfoy house, it was a wonder that she had not gotten any wrinkles.

Of course there was a nifty spell which took care of that kind of things, something her mother had made sure that all three daughters had learned long before they had received their acceptance letters to Hogwarts.

Since they as females had been unable to carry on the name of Black, the three sisters had had to find other ways to make themselves noticeable.

Andromeda, the middle child, had done so by running off with a muggle, or was he a mudblood, as soon as she was off age? She hadn't seen her sister since then, but rumours had it that Andromeda had gotten a daughter, who was now an Order member.

Bellatrix, her oldest sister, had joined Lord Voldemort's ranks and quickly worked her way up as the dark lord's highest ranking female death eater.

Compared to her sister, Narcissa knew that she had done well. Even as the youngest sister she had married into the best family, she had a son, and she was the one their Lord called when there was a medical problem he wanted her to take care of.

Which lead her back to the reason to why she was feeling less than positive feelings towards her sister at the current moment.

Since Narcissa knew that Lord Voldemort cared less for her son, she had taken it upon herself to inform Draco of what had happened to his friend. Understandable her little Dragon had demanded to be allowed to see his friend, right until she had informed him of the seer's current location.

So together they had settled down with tea and waited. Even if Narcissa would not be able to bring her son with her to the dark lord's chambers, she would at the very least do her best to lessen his worries.

Sometime along the line, Bellatrix had joined them, apparently she had had nothing to distract herself with and had therefore decided to grace them with her presence.

It was when they neared dinner time, that the expected houseelf from the dark lord had arrived. Truth to be told, Naricssa had been surprised. She had thought that the boy would be unconscious for a few more hours. Surely his body would have taken the chance to get some much needed rest so he could get his reserves filled.

It seemed like the little seer was full of surprises.

As she had been about to leave to follow their lord's orders, Bellatrix had proved to have something else in mind. A shriek and a rustle of clothes made Narcissa turn back in the doorway.

The first thing she had noticed was that her son was no longer lounging on the chair he had previously been occupying. His clothes and shoes lay on the floor and something small had been moving around under those expensive robes.

The rest seemed rather confused to her. She remembered a ferret looking form shot out from under the robes and run out of the open door. A spell had hit her from behind, and Narcissa had been filled with a sudden need to catch the ferret, everything else seemed so unimportant to her.

The next thing she remembered was finding herself standing in one of the less populated corridors, much to her relief. She hadn't needed Bellatrix to explain that she had been hit by a confundus charm. It was something her sister often had done when they were younger and Bellatrix had felt that she was losing the argument.

In her hands, Narcissa had found her son, struggling to get free. The mother felt proud that her little Dragon had an animagus form, though it wasn't as impressive as Draco had undoubtedly hoped for.

A rapid series of curses had sent her sister on the run, though if the laughter ringing through the halls was anything to go by, Bellatrix allowed it.

Knowing that it would take time before the spell stopped working, and not wanting to embarrass her son more that he had already been, and knowing that the dark lord was probably expecting her, Narcissa had done the only thing she could think of.

As she entered the dark lord's private chambers, Narcissa felt Draco move around and she placed a hand over her pocket. At her touch her son calmed down, though Narcissa knew that he was far from happy about this arrangement. But with the limited time she had had, this was the best Narcissa had been able to come up with.

Luckily the wards allowed them access without troubles. Narcissa had already been invited, and to the wards Draco in his current state was nothing more than an animal. As long as he stayed like that, there would be no troubles.

Stepping inside the bedroom Narcissa curtsied for her lord. Getting no response, Narcissa allowed herself to look up through her long eyelashes, her eyes widened at the sight which greeted her.

Both her lord and the seer were seated on the bed, sitting so close that their shoulders were touching. In front of the two males a Pensieve bowl was placed and both had their heads dipped down in the silver coloured liquor.

Not wanting to alert either of her presence, Narcissa allowed herself to consider the situation she had walked in on.

When she had heard about how her son had been abandoned on his first mission, and had ended in the hands of Dumbledore's Order members, Narcissa had feared for her son's life. Together with Lucius she had waited to hear how the rescue mission would go, hoping that she soon would be able to hold her Dragon in her arms again.

But Draco had been brought back, and other than being a little roughed up, her son was unharmed. It was only afterwards that she learned that there had been someone else captured alongside her son.

Harry Potter, the squib whom Severus had taken under his wing and who apparently had saved her son's life by pushing him out of the way of a killing curse.

Therefore, her family owed the boy a lifedebt, something Narcissa hadn't liked one bit. But she still found herself thankful that she was able to hold and kiss her son one more time.

Then Lucius had told her about how the squib proved to be a seer, which was the reason that the boy had known that he needed to save Draco in the first place.

It had sounded so unbelievable to her, and yet Narcissa found herself accepting her husband's claim. It helped that Severus could back up the claim. And their lord had taken the seer into his service, and no squib would be able to run around corners with a man like Lord Voldemort.

It was a valuable ability, one many would love to get into their bloodline. As far as Narcissa was aware, the Potter's had never been able to produce a seer before. And since the boy's mother had been a mudblood, that excluded the possibility of it coming from her.

But the boy's paternal grandmother had been a Black, and her family had managed to produce a few seers back in time.

If not for the marriage contract between her son and the Greengrass she would have suggested Lucius that they let the boys get together. Since they were already friends and they owed the seer a lifedebt, it shouldn't have been that hard. Any child of such a combination would indeed be worth paying attention to.

The fact that they were both males didn't deter her. There were potions which could take care of such things, so an heir was sure to be produced and the Malfoy line would easily be continued.

Looking at the pair in front of her, Narcissa was well aware that it would never be a reality, even if they had decided to break the marriage contract with the Greengrasses.

It was rare to see her lord let anyone this close to him. Also, he allowed the seer into his own room and called her to heal the boy. It would have been much easier if he had simply dumped the boy in the Hospital wing or let him be brought to St Mungo's where plenty of healers would be able to cure him of the poison.

Her female intuition told her, that this was not done simply because the last Potter was a seer and the dark lord wanted to secure his future alliances.

No, from the way Draco had spoken and what she was able to observe right now, Lord Voldemort was interested in the boy on a personal level.

An amused smile spread on her face. She looked forward to see how her lord intended to make the seer see things as he did. From what Draco had told her, the boy could be rather thick-headed. And though he was good with potions, he absolutely lacked at the emotional plane.

The two Malfoys waited in silence and were soon awarded for their patience when two heads emerged from the Pensieve bowl. Making sure that her son was safely hidden in her pocket, Narcissa once again curtsied, this time feeling the heavy weight of red eyes rest on her.

"My lord, I apologise for the delay. Bellatrix decided to use a confundus so she would be able to look after the seer. But I am ready to look the seer over, if you will allow me to do so, my lord." She said, deciding it was the best way to avoid the dark lord's anger. While Lord Voldemort rewarded well done missions, he was also one to punish those who failed him.

And though it was not her fault that Bellatrix had hexed her from behind, Narcissa didn't doubt for a moment that he was not happy with what had happened.

Waiting for her lord's answer, Narcissa let her gaze rest on the boy, who had yet to move from the lord's side but didn't even seem to realise how close the two of them were sitting, and how such closeness could look to any onlookers.

He was a Potter, that no one could deny. Though his hair was longer than what his father's had been, not even the length could fully tame the black mane. But there was so much of him that belonged to the Black family, his checkbones and chin and the pale skin, though it might have more to do with the fact that he rarely ventured outside the castle.

When one had the Order of the Phoenix after them, Narcissa could hardly blame him from not getting out more.

The eyes were the same as those his mother had had. Having been five year over the mudblood when they attended Hogwarts, Narcissa remembered how much attention the mudblood's unusual eye colour had attracted.

Her observation of the seer was interrupted, and Narcissa returned her gaze to her lord, as the man stood from the bed. "Check him over and ensure that the poison is out of his body, I want to be notified if you find anything else." The dark lord continued speaking, but this time in Parseltongue, making Narcissa frown in confusion.

Her eyes widened when the boy blushed and answered back in soft hisses. This was an unexpected turn of events. It also explained why her lord showed such a big interest in the Potter boy. After all, Lord Voldemort was the last known Parselmouth. To find that someone else had the gift, was a wonder she had never suspected that she would be allowed to experience.

Feeling Draco move around in her pocket, probably aggravated by the sound of hissings, Narcissa slowly patted her pocket, calming her son before anyone would notice the movements. The current fashion was absolutely horrible when it came to hiding something in the robes. But it was much safer than letting Draco run around on his own until he turned back to his human self.

A curt nod to her and the dark lord left the bedroom, leaving Narcissa alone with the boy for the first time.

When the dark lord was gone, Narcissa allowed the ghost of a smile to graze her lips. By the way the boy's eyes widened he had noticed it, though he probably didn't know what the smile meant. Since he'd already acquaintance Bellatrix, he was probably expecting her to act somewhat like her sister.

"Good evening, I am Narcissa Malfoy, Draco's mother." The seer eyed her with a guarded expression though he seemed to relax a little after her revelation about how she was related to Draco.

"Nice to meet you, Lady Malfoy. I'm Harry Potter." At least the boy had some manners, but since he was Severus' ward, one could hardly expect anything else.

Since this was the one who had saved her son, and apparently the one her lord had chosen as his, Narcissa decided that she would do her best in being friendly with him. "Please call me Narcissa, dear. Now shall we take a look at you?" Seeing the blush deepen, Narcissa chuckled, it had certainly been long since she had a patient who reacted like that. "Now don't be like that, I have already treated your wound, and I can say that you have nothing to be ashamed of."

But it didn't mean that she wouldn't have a talk with Severus the next time she saw him. Really, the boy needed to get regular meals and plenty of food. How did her old friend expect his ward to grow into a real man if he didn't nurture him?

Apparently her words did not have the wished effect, as Potter grew tense and wary. Sighing Narcissa knew that she could not work like this. One of the first things she had learned, was that the patient had to be willing. If you had to fight them the whole way, something might be overlooked.

And considering that the dark lord had shown a personal interest in the boy, it was not a risk that Narcissa was willing to take.

"Now, Harry, I hope that you do not mind that I call you that?" As the youth shook his head, Narcissa continued. "Now, lay down and let me examine you. If you are a good boy and don't cause any troubles, I will let you have a chocolate frog afterwards." She said, waiting for the boy to do as told. After all that always worked when she had to do this with Draco.

"You do realise that I am not a child, right?" He asked nervously, but did nonetheless do as she had said. Inside her pocket Narcissa felt Draco move around. Perhaps her son wasn't too happy that she was sharing what he probably considered their private ritual with his friend, but she needed to get this done before the lord returned. Narcissa doubted that the seer would be easier to handle once Lord Voldemort was back.

**)00(**

Harry found himself unable to get himself to relax fully. When he and Voldemort had emerged from the Pensieve, viewing the memory Harry had of his single encounter with Slughorn while staying with the Order, Harry hadn't expected for there to be another person in the room.

Of course he had seen Narcissa Malfoy nee Black before, though he doubted that the woman had ever paid much notice to him. She had often dropped her son off at Severus' place when they were small and Draco wanted to spend some time with his godfather. Well, that was at least the official excuse. More times than not, Harry and Draco had both ended up together, trying to do whatever potion Severus had assigned them.

But until now Harry hadn't known that the woman had any experience in healing.

He lay unmoving as Lady Malfoy flickered her wand at him, and he was engulfed by a blue glow. Harry wanted to look to see if the blue glow was everywhere, but he did not dare to move. From Severus he knew, that even one movement could have the worst consequences.

He didn't feel like having an extra head or something even remotely like that.

Over him Narcissa let out the occasional hum, but otherwise she didn't speak. For this Harry was thankful. He found the situation awkward enough without also having to attempt speaking with the woman.

If not for Voldemort's parting words, Harry would have put up a whole lot more of a fight than he did. The seer held no wish about learning just how true Voldemort would stay to his words. Being stuck to a bed for an undecided amount of time was not something Harry wanted to experience. The so-called safety measurement Voldemort had taken was more than enough punishment in Harry's opinion. How in the world was he ever going to brew those potions Severus had left for him to make in the man's absence?

But Voldemort had given him no chance to argue. After seeing the memories, Voldemort had decided that he would go and help Nagini with tracking down Pettigrew. Harry had not dared to say anything against it, seeing the fury in the man's eyes. Luckily the anger was not directed at him and Harry was only too happy to let himself conjure images of what would happen to Wormtail when Voldemort got his hands on the traitor.

It still left him to wonder what had made Voldemort so angry.

"You have improved since the last time," Narcissa said, bringing Harry out of his thoughts. "Your fever is going down, and with proper rest it should be all gone tomorrow. The cream I left has healed your bruises." A blush flared to life when Harry realised who had probably applied the cream while he had been unconscious. "How is your wound?"

Shifting his leg Harry managed a smile. "Fine?" Despite making a statement it came out more like a question. Though his leg felt weak and sore, it didn't pulse as it had done down in the cell.

Lady Malfoy hummed again, her eyes resting on his thigh as if she wasn't sure if to believe him, and wanted to take a look on her own.

Clenching his teeth Harry moved the duvet so it covered his legs, making him feel less naked under the witch's gaze. The movement seemed to be enough to bring her out of her thoughts.

"I do believe that you have healed enough to be able to take a bath without getting in troubles. That is if you want to. Personally I know I would like a bath after what you have been through and where you have been, a Scourgify is good, but nothing beats a real bath." Her words made Harry realise how right she was. The moment his stay in the cell was mentioned, it felt like his skin was itching and dirty.

A bath would indeed be good.

Getting a nod from Draco's mother, Harry pushed the duvet aside and placed his feet on the floor. Despite everything which had happened since he awoke, Harry had yet to test if his legs could carry him.

Rather wobbly Harry got on his feet, feeling for a moment like he was going to fall. He regained his balance before he could fall and after getting an encouraging look from the witch, Harry wobbled over to the door which the dark lord had first entered through.

The bathroom was spacious and considering who it belonged to, Harry was not really surprised by the way it was decorated. The floor and walls were made of dark marble decorated with snakes of white marble, so lively that they gave Harry a feeling of being watched.

In the middle of the room there was a large, swimming pool like tub, with bath tabs running on its one side, all made of what looked to be pure silver. By its wet state Harry guessed, that it was where Voldemort had taken his bath.

Though he would have liked nothing more than simply lay in the tub and let himself be soaked through, Harry headed for the shower stall in the far corner of the room. The glass door slid aside as Harry neared, revealing the inside for him.

His eyes darted around as he stepped inside the shower stall. Like the rest of the room, the inside of the stall was made out of black marble, bare the door behind him, where the glass was blurred so one would not be able to see right inside it, or out for that matter.

There was plenty of space so three people could stand there without even brushing against each other. Above him four shower heads were positioned so one could not stand and not be hit by the water.

The seer jumped in fright when he heard the glass door close behind him. Turning abruptly Harry was unable to spot any reason for that to had happened.

Hot water hit him from all sides, making Harry throw up his arms in front of his face in defence. It didn't take him long to realise that he had been correct when he assumed that there was nowhere to stand so the water didn't hit him. And the door refused to open, though Harry was sure that he had seen no lock on it.

In the end Harry sighed in defeat. Since his clothes were already soaked through, he got them off with a little trouble, since the fabric was clinging to his skin. The bandage around his thigh had to be water repelling, because through the whole process, it seemed like not a single drop touched it.

When the water turned off, Harry didn't waste his time. But when he grabbed the door handle, the glass door didn't move an inch. Stepping back Harry's eyes narrowed as he glared at the closed door.

He would not let such a thing stand in his way of getting out of here. The stall was undoubtedly created by magic, and Harry didn't like this one bit.

Jumping forward Harry intended to see if the glass would move when his whole weight slammed against it.

Just before he hit it, the door slit aside, making Harry yelp as he tumbled out of the shower stall and fell.

Groaning with his face buried in one arm as he lay on his stomach on the hard floor Harry was aware that the bathroom door was being opened.

He jerked his head up, his eyes widened when he saw Draco standing in the doorway, the blond looking nothing like his usual perfect self. "Honestly Scarhead can't you be alone for a moment without getting into troubles?" The blond huffed, already heading over to Harry to help him get back on his feet. It didn't escape Harry's notice how ruffled up Draco's robes were, and it looked like someone had run their hand through the blond hair, leaving it to stand up in the most odd ways.

Somehow Harry felt the strong need to protest against Draco's assumption that this was his fault. "Don't blame me, the shower is evil!"

The look on Draco's face told Harry, that his friend believed that he had finally gone mad.

**)00(**

"_What do you mean that you cannot find the rat_!?" Several people in the corridor drew back when they heard the dark lord hiss at the big snake next to him. Voldemort paid them no attention, his gaze was focussed on Nagini, someone who had rarely disappointed him, and yet he found that now was one of those few times where she did.

Nagini curled around herself, her head lowered in disappointment that she had failed to fulfil her master's task. "_He's gone. I'm barely able to pick up the rat's scent_." Voldemort lifted his spell, already knowing that he could not curse Nagini, after all, it was not her fault that Pettigrew had fled. Something Voldemort should have expected when Harry explained the traitor's role in his tale.

Pettigrew had turned a traitor to the Order of the Phoenix, ratting out his own friends when they where spying on Voldemort. He was a turncoat, as he had already proved before. When he was placed under pressure, the rat broke, which was one of the many reasons to why Voldemort had never let him raise in rank.

Besides, he didn't trust the rat as much as the former servant probably had wanted him to.

"Crucio." The word came out in a low hiss, not quite in Parseltongue, but enough to catch the surrounding people's attention and make them back further away.

His unfortunate victim fell to the floor, screaming under the pain the curse inflicted on him.

Not satisfied Voldemort soon ended the curse. This wasn't the one he currently wanted to curse, and it did nothing to help on the fury which was ragging inside him. "Lucius!"

The blond stepped forward, easily spotted in the crowd, and bowed deeply. "My Lord." A stiff smile settled on Voldemort's face. Despite the formal greeting, Voldemort could see the slight fear in the grey eyes. However, he had something much more important for Lucius to do than to use him as target practice.

"I want Peter Pettigrew tracked down and brought to me, alive but not unharmed. Make that your first priority. _Come Nagini, we will return to my chamber._" Knowing that his order would be carried out without him having to oversee the process, Voldemort turned back the way he had come from, striding down the corridor with Nagini following him closely behind.

Perhaps his mood would turn better when he had spent time with Harry. The way the boy had kissed him was certainly enough to improve his mood, and he wanted to see what other antics the seer would come up with.

**Sorry, I really want to torture Pettigrew and kill him in a horrific way, but unfortunately the rat's role in this story is not over yet. **

**But since I have denied you the pleasure of having the rat punished, I have planned that Voldemort will go and meet the Dursleys in the next chapter. Any suggestions to what you think should happen, is more than welcome.**

**Voldemort is heading back for his rooms, and Harry and Draco are in the bathroom, where Harry is naked. I am heavily considering letting Voldemort walk in on the two boys.**

**This time I recommend:**

**The True Face of Another by Tess4aria**

**I See The Moon by hctiB-notsoB**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

**Waning: Some torture**

The rodent's legs were moving fast, carrying their owner through the Forbidden Forest's undergrowth. Somewhere behind him he could hear the sounds of hooves following him as he ran as fast as his small legs could carry him.

Peter was well aware that many looked down on his animagus form. It was small, insignificant and the rat was generally viewed as a useless animal.

Which meant that it was perfect to use to get through small places and spy on people.

At the current moment he was running for his life. Not from the centaurs, though they seemed to take offence at his mere presence when he passed through their territory. That hadn't happened back in his school day, but then he had been running with two bigger animals and a werewolf. Not even the centaurs had been mad enough to try and do anything to them.

No, those horsemen were the smallest of his problems, though they at the current time were the most urgent ones.

Peter had known that he would never be an important person if he had stayed where he was, despite what had been promised to him when he took the mark and became a death eater.

Well, not him exactly. The evening he and several others had taken their marks, they had all been promised a great future and a chance to rise in ranks when they had proven their worth.

He didn't come from a rich pureblood family, so he hadn't been able to provide money, rare artefacts or political power like the Malfoys. There wasn't a subject in school he had excelled in, like Snivellus who was now a famous Potions master despite his less than perfect blood.

But still, Peter knew that he deserved far more than he had ever gotten for all his hard work.

It was him who put himself at risk by spying on the Order of the Phoenix, bringing information back to his lord, though it was rarely the important ones he knew the dark lord hungered for.

It was he who had found out that James and Lily had infiltrated the dark lord's ranks. And he had brought the news to the dark lord. It was already clear that the Order of the Phoenix would not win the war they were raging against the death eaters and their master. So he didn't see why he shouldn't use it to his own advantage.

And yet he had not been rewarded as much as Peter knew he deserved to be.

Therefore, it hadn't been hard to accept the offer the previous headmaster of Hogwarts had given him, when the old man had asked for a moment of his time half a year ago. All he had was to bring one squib to Dumbledore, something which should have been easy enough for him to do.

But James' offspring proved to be just as much troubles as his parents had been. The squib avoided him, and when he couldn't do so, he made sure that there were other people around him, making it impossible for Peter to complete his task.

And the way the squib stared at him had made Peter feel like he knew of the things he had done, some of those he knew that no one should have any knowledge of.

So he had decided to step back and watch. There had to be some reason to why the leader of the Order of the Phoenix wanted this particular squib. And when he found the reason, perhaps he would see if someone else was willing to offer a better price for the boy.

In the end he waited too long and seemingly for no reason the squib was suddenly placed under tight security, though the boy didn't seem to notice more than the obvious ones.

And the rumours had started to flow. Rumours about how the squib might be more than that. Peter wasn't sure if they were true, but it certainly explained why the two most powerful wizards were so interested in one squib.

Seeking shelter under a tangled mess of roots Peter stopped, his breath coming out in small huffs. Wincing he kept his damaged front leg as still as possible.

When the kidnapping attempt had failed Peter had known that he needed to get as far away as quickly as possible. No doubt that the dark lord would be furious when he learned of what had happened. That was also why he had cut off his left arm before he had destroyed the lost limb and transformed into wormtail. Before using his animagus form he had stopped the bleeding with a badly done healing charm.

Only having three legs slowed him down, but compared to what would happen if the dark lord started to call him through the mark, this was to prefer.

Through the pain from the wound Peter could feel the lingering magic from the mark. It would have been much worse if he hadn't cut most of his arm off. The dark mark was used by the dark lord to command the death eaters to him, and the burning in his arm would probably have been much worse if he had still had his lower arm.

This was all the squib's fault. Peter still remembered how much he had inwardly celebrated when he had learned that perfect Potter's brat was a squib. It was a shame that James had had to live with for the rest of his short life, even after he had hidden the squib away from their world.

But even without magic the seer got treated better than him. Peter had seen how the grey robes were changed out with expensive clothes. It was unfair. All the seer had to do was to claim that he could see what would happen in the future and suddenly people acted like he was a second Merlin.

Peter would get his revenge. He would catch the squib when everything had calmed down and people started feeling more secure. Then he would hide and take the Potter squib with him. Who had said that he would have to deliver the squib right away?

The squib looked rather young for his age group now where Peter thought about it.

Lying down Peter listened as the hooves moved away from his hiding place, indicating that the centaurs had finally given up their hunt.

For now he would keep his distance and watch. When the time came he would swoop in and take the seer, and no one would ever expect it.

And once he had his hands on the squib Peter would decide what he would do.

**)00(**

"This, Scarhead, is entirely your fault." Drawled Draco from atop of the sprawled out seer.

Harry lay flat on his back, glaring up at Draco, whose face was mere inches from his own. "From my point of view, it seems like you are the one lying on me. So please do enlighten me on how this is supposed to be my fault." In fact Harry wasn't even sure how they had ended up in this intimate position. It certainly wasn't something which he had planned.

He yelped when Draco dug an elbow into his side while trying to get back on his feet and the seer lost his breath when Draco's feet slipped and he landed on top of him. Harry was wondering if one could possible die of mortification. "Get off." He demanded, wiggling around in hope of delogding Draco.

"Would you stop acting like a flobberworm? This is hard enough without you moving around like a crazy!"

Getting enough Harry wrapped his legs around Draco's waist, using the blond's surprise to move them around so Harry was somewhat sitting on top of the wizard. He placed his hands on Draco's chest, using them to balance himself so he wouldn't create more embarrassment for himself than he had already done.

"Get off." If not for his current state of nakedness he would probably have found their reverted roles a lot funnier.

As it was he just wanted to get up and find something to cover himself with.

"Close your eyes." Draco opened his mouth, undoubtedly to argue that he had already seen what Harry had, but a glare made the wizard reconsider what he was about to do.

Feeling relief Harry moved his hands from Draco's chest, but he didn't place them on the floor. As they had both discovered the floor was slippery. Water still dripped from his skin and hair, making the mess worse. Broken bottles, which had been knocked over the first time Draco had attempted to get him back on his feet, added to the disarray. Now water and soap had mixed, creating a mattress of purple bubbles around them.

Trusting Draco not to be peeking, Harry's eyes travelled over the floor, looking for a dry spot within reach. It was almost as if someone had jinxed the whole room against him.

First the bath stall had kept him captured, soaking him completely and only releasing him when he had attempted to smash head first through the glass door. Now he and Draco seemed unable to get up and away from each other. Every time they tried, they would just end getting more tangled up, like two flies in the spider's web.

The only way he could think this might get worse was if Lady Malfoy walked in and saw them like this. It was actually surprisingly that she hadn't come to check up on them. It was not like they had been quiet when falling over each other.

Hearing the door open, Harry's head whipped around and his body grew almost impossible still when he found Voldemort watching them with narrowed eyes.

As if having an invisible collar around his neck Harry found himself removed from Draco with a hard tug which sent him sailing through the air. Knowing that it would hurt when he collided with whatever he was heading towards, Harry closed his eyes.

But when he came to stop it wasn't because of a wall. What he had collided with was definitely living and an arm had already closed around his ribs, pulling him flush against a male's chest in a secure grip.

"Crucio." When the screams of pain started, they were not his own as Harry had expected when he had heard the curse being spoken.

Green eyes snapped open and landed on the form of his friend, which was trashing around on the floor, sending purple bubbles into the air.

"Stop. Stop it!" While the first word was barely above a whisper, he yelled the last part out and let a kick accompany them, uncaring about who was holding him.

Though Harry felt his heel connect with Voldemort's shin, the wand didn't waver.

"Please stop it." He pleaded as his hands closed around Voldemort's wrist, trying to force him to break off the curse.

The grip around his ribs tightened to the border of painful as the wand was lowered and the curse ended. Draco slumped together on the floor, making no move to rose, but the spasms that ran through the blond's body convinced Harry that his friend was still alive.

But that did not do much to sooth Harry's worries. Prolonged use of the Cruciatus curse could cause the victim's mind to break.

"Draco?" Harry asked, hoping to get some kind of a reaction out of his friend to see that this was not the case. The only answer he got was a barely audible groan which didn't answer his question. But the sound of his voice proved to be enough to spin his holder into action.

"Narcissa, remove your son from my sight. I'll decide later what his punishment will be." Until now Harry hadn't even noticed Lady Malfoy's presence. How long had she been there? It tore him up to know that she had watched her own son being tortured and yet she hadn't lifted a finger to help Draco.

At her lord's permission Lady Malfoy rushed over to Draco, stopping short before the bubbles, that and the tears running silently down her cheeks convinced Harry, that she hadn't made that decision willingly.

Harry had hoped that the witch would stay long enough for him to know that Draco was okay. Instead she spoke a shaky Wingardium Leviosa and followed her son's floating body out of the room.

Harry's eyes stayed at the spot where Draco had laid, until he heard the door close, signalling that the Malfoys had left. It shook him out of the light daze Harry had let himself shift into and he started to struggle in honest effort to get free. "Let go. I need to know if he's okay." There was no pleading in his command. One way or another Harry intended to follow after them and ensure that his friend was okay.

The arm which had previously hold the wand, spun him around so he was facing Voldemort and somehow Harry found himself pressed up against a wall. The cool marble was enough to control his anger though it didn't mean that it had lessened. It also reminded him of his rather vulnerable state. "_How dare you to do that. Draco had done nothing to give you a reason to curse him. You bastard_!"

It happened automatic that Harry shifted into Parseltongue when he found himself staring into dark red eyes. Harry hated that he was unable to control the use of the language, but it was nothing compared to what he felt about the man holding him in place.

The arm on his chest was removed and now it was only the body pressed against his own which held him up. His feet were dangling over the floor, making Harry curse in his mind. He hated it whenever his lack of height left him at a disadvantage in any kind of situation.

Red eyes were narrowed and Voldemort seemed just as angry as he had been when they had been viewing Harry's memory in the Pensieve. "_You are mine, Harry Potter. That means that no one but me will have you_."

As he spoke Voldemort leaned closer until his breath was washing over Harry's lips. Had it been another situation Harry would probably have been more aware of his lack of clothes and the closeness between them. As it was the flush colouring his face was there for a whole other reason.

"_To Hell with that. I belong to no one. Dumbledore and the Dursleys attempted to control me! Why do you think you will success where they failed_!?" In his anger Harry was vaguely aware that he was giving out information that he wanted to keep to himself. But he dismissed the notion, far more focussed on taking his anger out on the dark lord.

"_Then what about the Malfoy heir_?" The man asked a moment later, his voice cold when he mentioned Draco.

"_Draco_?" Harry tried to see how his friend fit in among those who had tried to control him. "_He might be a spoiled brat, but other than wanting to have his will on trivial things he hasn't attempted to control me. Never in the degree which others have. He's my friend, like the big brother I never wanted to have but still came to love_." He said, recalling Pansy's words from the Ministry ball and changing them a little so he felt that they better fitted the situation.

"_What kind of love_?"

The pressure against his body build up, making Harry squirm in discomfort. This would be so much easier to deal with, if he was not naked and pressed up against Voldemort's body. Unfortunately it didn't look like the man was going to move anytime soon.

But Voldemort's words made Harry's eyes turn into slits so they were matching the older male's. He tilted his chin up, refusing to back down though he was confused over what could have lead to this change of subject. "_Careful, it almost sound like you are jealous. I already told you that I view Draco as a brother_."

He would have said more, but Voldemort ground his hips against Harry's own, making the seer gasp at the sensation. There was no doubt that the dark lord was aroused though it was so far out of the picture that Harry forced himself not to think about it.

"_The scene I walked in on didn't look like something which two brothers should be doing_." Voldemort's face had moved away from his and Harry could feel the man's breath tickle over the skin on his neck. What was the man doing? As far as Harry was aware there was nothing of interest there.

But compared to where else Voldemort could have his attention, perhaps this was the better option. For even Harry was not so naive that he believed that Voldemort wouldn't have noticed the awakening of a certain part of the youth's own anatomy. They were far too close for it to go unnoticed.

Recalling what he had thought when he had sat on Draco, Harry realised what Voldemort was talking about. "_It was nothing. I slipped and Draco tried to help me up. We both fell and broke a few bottles, creating the mess you see and making it impossible to gain our footing again. Since I was tired of acting like his mattress every time Draco fell, I decided to change our positions_."

The thought of doing anything even remotely sexually with Draco was enough to make Harry want to gag. It wasn't that Draco was not attractive, even Harry was able to see that. But as he had already explained, Draco was a brother to him.

For long moments Voldemort said and did nothing. Harry barely dared to breathe as he waited for the man's reaction.

When it came it certainly wasn't what Harry had expected it to be.

A sharp pain emerged from the side of his neck, just above where his artery was located. The pain was strong enough to convince Harry, that skin had been broken.

The teeth let go, and Voldemort sucked on the spot before letting his tongue brush over the skin, licking up the blood if the feeling was anything to go by.

When Voldemort drew away, Harry eyed the man warily. It seemed like every time he thought he had figured out the man, Voldemort did something which proved him wrong. It was unnerving to say the least. He didn't like not knowing what would happen when he was around the man.

"_What was that for_?" Harry finally asked, his voice slightly hoarse, though he determinedly ignored it.

Voldemort's gaze rested at where Harry's hand now rested on his neck before it moved up to meet his eyes. "_Now you will not forget who you belong to and others will also know not to touch what belongs to me_." When Voldemort finished speaking Harry didn't bother with picking up his jaw from where it had hit the floor.

Carefully he was lowered so his feet were once again touching the floor. It was strange to consider that those hands that handled him like he was a priceless, breakable artefact were the same hands which had held the wand that had hurt his friend.

When it became clear that he was not going to fall the moment he was without support, Voldemort withdrew with two steps back, still within reach should Harry prove his assumption wrong.

"_Don't ever believe that I will allow you to manhandle me like that again."_

Red eyes moved over the body in front of him, taking their time as they did so. There was a fire in them, started by Harry's words. If he didn't know better the man almost looked like he wanted to prove him wrong.

Harry couldn't help but shiver and he wrapped his arms around his stomach, looking slightly away.

"_I look forward to prove you wrong on that. You_ _should put on some clothes. I don't want anyone else to see this much of you_." Before Harry could munch on what the man meant, Voldemort had already turned around and a click sounded soon after, indicating that Voldemort had left the rooms entirely.

"Bastard!" Harry grabbed a bottle from a group of what looked to be a bunch of skin care product and smashed it against the floor at his feet. The bottle broke and glass spread over the floor. Surprisingly enough none of the pieces came even close at hitting him.

Harry breathed in deeply, trying to calm his anger before he did something which would actually harm himself.

"That damned wizard!" Just because he didn't see a reason to hurt himself over it, it didn't mean that his anger had lessened.

On the bed Harry found a new set of night clothes for him to wear. Since the clothes he had previously worn lay in a wet pile on the bathroom floor, Harry was only too glad to put something on which would hide his nudity. Enough people had seen him in his birthday suit today as it was.

A small towel lay next to the pile and Harry used it to dry his hair with.

"_You_ _humans are strange. When you shred your skin, you are not supposed to put new one on_." The low hissing from near the fireplace made Harry jump and drop the towel.

Nagini left her spot in front of the fireplace in favour of circling around him, only to stop and raise herself so they were face to face. "_The rat got away_." She said with something that could almost be called a pout.

Making a non commenting noise Harry reached out and scratched her on top of her head.

Nagini's news didn't surprise him as much as he had thought he would be hearing this.

Wormtail was a coward and since the kidnapping attempt had failed, it only made sense that the rat would flee before anyone found out that he had had a hand in Harry's disappearance. Sadly, the animagus was probably long gone. It was no secret what Voldemort did to traitors, and Harry would have loved knowing that Pettigrew would have been suffering such a punishment.

This meant that Harry would not have to deal with the rat anytime soon. If he was lucky, then he wouldn't get to see Pettigrew but in his visions from now on.

Harry glanced at the closed door, he knew led outside, before looking away from it. It was dreadful to know, that in all probability no one was guarding the door, and yet he wouldn't be able to leave to check up on his friend.

And Nagini had already proved that she would do her best to make sure that Harry didn't come and go, unless her master wanted it.

But he wanted to know if Draco was okay. Had the curse been hold long enough to have any lasting effects? What if, when Draco woke up, the blond would be nothing more than a vegetable?

Scowling Harry stopped petting Nagini and instead he started wandering back and forth across the floor. His hands were fisted at his sides, shaking in silent anger.

Draco had been cursed before of a stupid mistake on Voldemort's part.

And if there really had been something between them, then he didn't see how it gave Voldemort a reason to stick his nose into it.

With a groan Harry let himself fall back on the bed and closed his eyes. The whole episode was so confusing, and he had not even started thinking about the bite Voldemort had given him.

Unable to contain his curiosity Harry let his fingers brush over the sore spot with a slight wince. If this left a mark, he would have one more reason to do something to Voldemort. From the feel of it, the bite was placed just high enough that none of the collars on his indoor robes would be able to cover it.

"Damn him!" Harry cursed, rolling onto his side as Nagni slid over him, like a big and warm blanket which would ensure that he didn't move anytime in the near future.

He would make sure that Voldemort would get his just for what the man had done to Draco.

And he knew just from whom he would get the needed assistance from. But until he could talk with his partner, he would simply have to bide his time.

**)00(**

Clouds had covered the sky, leaving him with the street lights as his only source of light.

The street he was on, made Voldemort pull his lips into a sneer worthy of a Malfoy.

This was where people, who wanted to pretend that they were more than they were and better than others, lived.

It was idyllic with the identical two story houses and white fences.

This was the kind of places people moved to because of its low rate of criminality and they felt that it would be safe for eventual children to run around without constant supervision.

In short, it was a sickening muggle place.

And he would fully enjoy destroying the illusion of peace for those he intended to meet with tonight.

But first, he needed to deal with an unexpected obstacle which dared to stand in his way.

Considering that only muggles lived in that house, it was rather surprisingly when he had found , that there was wards which would start an alarm somewhere in case that someone with harmful intentions took a step inside the grounds.

Unfortunately, it meant that Voldemort had to delay his plans a little since his visit was not meant to simply socialize with the muggles inside the house.

Thanks to a Notice-me-not charm he had put on himself before leaving Hogwarts, Voldemort could take forth his wand without someone seeing what he did. If he was spotted by a muggle, it would be noticed by someone from the Ministry and thus destroy the whole reason to why he had decided to dress himself as a muggle for this event.

Even if he controlled the whole British Wizarding world, it didn't mean that he wanted to deal with the noisy reporters who would analyse his whole reason for searching out those muggles.

Not that there was anyone around to see him. Despite the snow having long since melted, it was still biting cold. People would rather spend their evening inside their warm houses.

Shaking his head Voldemort turned his attention back to the task in front of him. Since he had not expected to run into something magical in an all muggle area, he had left without being properly prepared.

He could return to Hogwarts and bring those things he might need with him, but from the look he had had at the wards surrounding the small house, it was not something he could not deal with on his own.

It had nothing to do with the fact that he knew that Harry would be in his room and at the current moment Voldemort very much doubted that he would be able to be near the seer without ravishing him.

He had seen the youth naked while Harry had been unconscious. But seeing him standing up against him and that anger mixed with confusion in the green eyes had made it hard to not do something which would ruin his plan for how he would get the seer to stay with him.

He would return once he had finished the task and by then they would hopefully have calmed down enough to not start doing something he knew that Harry would not be ready for as of just yet.

For now, he would focus on this.

Lifting his wand Voldemort slashed it downwards, almost as if he was handling a sword instead of his wand. He was not using an actual spell, but used his wand to direct his magic into doing what he wanted it to. It was a feat very few claim being able to do, and it had taken him years to perfect it.

Holding his wand ready, Voldemort watched as the wards around the house crumbled to dust and then disappeared as if they had been blown away by the wind.

The glasses he had been wearing to be able to see the wards surrounding the house was pocketed safely in an inner pocket, where he knew that they would stay until such a time where he knew that he would be in need for them again.

Wand slowly swirling in his hand, Voldemort made his way to the front door, which he knocked on when he reached it. Waiting for the door to open, Voldemort pointed his wand at the street behind him before he hid it away in his sleeve where he easily could reach it once he decided that time would be right.

It took longer than he had expected for someone to react to his knocking. The sound of footsteps could be heard from the other side of the door, making him wonder if someone had a Cerberus wandering around in there. Since he had already found wards, pathetic as they had been, it wouldn't really surprise him if such a creature was in there.

When the door opened Voldemort considered his theory proved. While it was no Cerberus there was no way that such a thing could be considered human.

If anything, it looked like a mad scientist had combined several animals, with a walrus providing the main amount of genes, giving it a blond wig to wear and taught it how to walk on two legs.

"What do you want?" And it seemed like someone had made that misjudgement to teach this abnormality how to speak.

Despite the middle aged muggle's rude behaviour Voldemort did not let his annoyance show on his face. Instead he gestured vaguely at some point behind him. "Good evening, my good man. My name is Lord Thomas Riddle. I was just passing through when my car gave out. It is rather strange since I have just brought it, but I was wondering if I could borrow your phone to call someone to come and pick me up."

He knew that this whole charade was unneeded. The illusion of a brand new car parked on the other side of the street with its hood open, the Armani suit he was wearing and the glamour he had placed over his eyes were just a part of the game.

Why should he force his way in and start killing right away? He found that people tended to be more fearful when they realised that they had invited the devil himself inside their home.

Pale blue eyes darted from the car to the black suit he was wearing, before they finally came to rest on his face. The muggle's face became what perhaps could be called friendly, at least he didn't look as if he had been about to choke on something as he had done, when he had opened the door.

"Of course, you're more than welcome to borrow my phone. And my wife can make you some tea while we wait for your ride, unless you prefer something stronger?" Voldemort kept his face bare of emotions as he followed the waddling muggle inside the house. If there had been more protection than the wards, the corpulent male's words would have deactivated those.

"Vernon, who are you talking to?" The shrill female voice coming from another room made Voldemort's hand itch for his wand. Perhaps he would silence the woman before he started on what he had planned for them. If her screams were anything like when she spoke, he would find no pleasure in the sounds she would produce under torture.

From Severus he knew, that the Potions master's ward had spent roughly five years of his childhood in this diminutive abode, and yet there was no sign that Harry had ever stepped a foot inside there.

A wall he passed was literally covered by muggle pictures in colours. It seemed like the creature in front of him had managed to reproduce a child, presumably with the horselike woman who could be spotted on some of the pictures too.

How Harry could be even remotely related to any of those people, was a true wonder to him.

Apparently the muggle took too long to answer as the woman, assumedly the one who had spoke before stepped into the kitchen where the two males were.

Perhaps someone had decided to open a zoo with humans crossed with different kind of animals to be on display for the visitors. There was the man, who mostly looked like a walrus. The woman had a horselike face and a neck so long that it could only look natural on a giraffe.

They did indeed make a freak show and from the pictures he had managed to catch a good glimpse of the son was not much better off.

"Lord Riddle, this is my darling wife, Petunia Dursley. Tunia, darling, this is lord Riddle. His car broke down outside our house. Would you be a darling to prepare some snacks while we wait for someone to come for him?"

The way the man spoke told Voldemort how much the man cared about his wife. They didn't seem like the kind who would be able to mistreat a child or to lay a hand on such.

Yet he knew that it had happened. And from the observations he and others had made of Harry it had quickly become clear that the seer did not care about, perhaps even loathed, those muggles.

And if it proved that Harry had kept silent about those relatives because he actually cared about them and for some reason wanted to protect them, he would use an oblivate to make sure that they would remember nothing about his visit.

Much would depend on what he learned from the couple about the time his Harry had spent with them.

With a smile he knew could make both men and woman weak in their knees Voldemort grabbed her hand and placed a chaste kiss on her knuckles, letting go of the appendage much sooner than would be considered polite if he had been dealing with a pureblood. "You have a lovely home, madam."

A vague blush coloured her gaunt cheeks, which didn't surprise Voldemort. A woman being so unlucky with her looks, had to take the compliments which others would give her. One of the ways by doing so, was by making sure that there was nothing bad to be said about her home.

With only a few more words she would probably be like melted butter in his hands, but Voldemort had no intention about going that far.

Mrs. Dursley smiled, making her face look more amendable. "Thank you, I do try my best. There is a phone in the living room you can use. Make yourself at home Lord Riddle while I will dish up some light snacks for us."

"That would be most delightful, Mrs. Dursley." He answered, already knowing that he would not touch anything she offered him. While he doubted that they would attempt to poison him, he didn't want to consume anything her bony hands had been in contact with.

Being lead into the living room Voldemort discovered that it was just as boringly furnished as what little else he'd seen of the house. It looked just as personal as something an estate agent would show to possible buyers.

It took him no more than three seconds to recognise why the house didn't give off a homey feeling to him. It lacked a personal touch, the weird ornaments people usually had placed around, most of them only having a worth to the owner.

It was as if the Dursleys feared to have anything which made them stand out from what could be called the crowd and by doing so they made themselves look rather peculiar.

Ignoring the phone placed conveniently on a table between the sofa and a wall Voldemort claimed the chair which was placed so the one sitting there would be able to keep an eye on most of the room without having to turn around.

Judging by the vein on his forehead having become pronounced, Voldemort was quite aware that the muggle was not happy with this. The chair he was seated in was placed as the room's centre and undoubtedly only the master of the house ever sat there. It was quite interesting to watch how the muggle fought to keep his tongue under control. It was probably not often that Vernon Dursley found someone claiming the position as his better.

By the end of this visit, he would make sure that the muggle would never have to doubt what position Voldemort held over the man.

"Lord Riddle, the phone is here." The muggle said gesturing towards the device with unnecessary big arm movements. He had to compliment the muggle for being able to keep his annoyance out of his voice. The short digging he had done before coming here had shown that Dursley was used to bring customers from the business he worked at to his home. He had to be able to act to deal with those strangers and yet Voldemort found it easy to find what would irk the man.

Perhaps it was because he could read people better than most, a skill he had acquired long before he had even heard of Hogwarts' existence.

"That will not be necessary, muggle." He could see how the wheels turned in the man's head. Obliviously, the muggle had heard the word before, though it hadn't been used enough to gain an immediately reaction from the man.

"You are one of those freaks! Go tell that Dumbledoor, or whatever his name is, that he shall stop disturbing us normal people or I'll call the police!" Voldemort tisked, with a few sentences the muggle had revealed far more than the fat man probably had intended to do.

With his wand Voldemort had the muggle petrifeid. While he knew that no mere muggle would be able to do him any harm, he had no intention dealing with more troubles than what was absolutely necessary.

As the muggle's eyes flicked over to the door leading to the kitchen, Voldemort smirked. "Your wife will be joining us in due time. Don't worry she won't go and alert the authorities. I put up a silencing ward around this room when we entered. She will have no clue about what is going on here, so it is no use to call for her."

The small eyes were back at him, and Voldemort could spot the start of fear forming in the orbs. "This doesn't have to be too painful. All you have to do is to answer my questions and I will afterwards decide what I will do with you and your family."

After giving the muggle what he deemed to be enough time, Voldemort loosened the spell enough to the man would be able to move his head and speak.

Vernon Dursley wasn't late to use his sudden mobility to make his dissatisfaction known.

"You are just another monster like that boy. We swore that we wanted nothing more to do with the freakishness when we gave the boy back to his kind. It's not our problem that he ran off. And if I ever see him again, I will make sure that the boy gets to know, that his kind is not welcomed here!"

It didn't escape Voldemort's notice that during the whole rant, the muggle had failed to say Harry's name even a single time. It wouldn't surprise him if said muggle didn't know his own nephew's name. So far the male Dursley had showed very few signs of intelligence.

"Legilimens." Without further warning Voldemort plunged into the muggle's mind, his patience used up for today. He wanted knowledge and this was by far the fastest way to gain it. He would be able to play to his heart's contents afterwards.

The muggle's mind was not orderly as it would have been if he had been attacking someone with even the slightest training in Occlumency.

What surprised Voldemort was the fact that the muggle's mind bore signs of having been invaded by another Legilimense before. The proofs were there, but they were weak, indicating that the last infiltrating had happened years ago. At the same time the mental visits had happened enough to leave permanent traces in the muggle's mind.

Voldemort only needed one guess to know who has responsible for this. After all, very few people would have had reason to use Legilimency on this muggle and since it had happened so long ago, Voldemort knew that the old man was behind this.

Abandoning his wonderings about what interest a muggle's mind could have for Dumbledore, Voldemort went for the muggle's memories.

Not bothering with gentleness Voldemort plunged into the first memory he found that contained his Harry.

He was in the entry in what was a slightly older version of Privet Drive 4. Despite the late time light was turned on, bating the room in a bright light. The screams and sobbing he had briefly heard when he entered the memory was quickly stopped as soon as the light was turned on.

Down the stairs waddled Vernon Dursley, dressed in a grey nightgown which seemed too small for his enormous body.

Like when Voldemort had looked into his eyes the muggle's face had turned into an ugly purple shade. But this time there was no magic to silence the man as he started yelling. "How many bloody times have I told you good for nothing freak not to disturb honest people's rest!?"

As he continued yelling the muggle opened the cupboard door with enough force to nearly rip the door off of its hinges.

Dursley stuck his whole arm inside the cupboard and to Voldemort's dismay the man proceeded to forcefully yank a small, dark haired child out of said cupboard. Voldemort found himself unable to look away from the child, whom could be no more than three, four if he pushed it, and he completely ignored the muggle in the memory.

Even then Harry had been a small and frail looking child. It made Voldemort's blood boil at the thought of how young the child must have been when first the mistreatment had started. Locking up a child in a cupboard could definitely be considered abuse, something even he didn't allow.

As it was the child looked young and vulnerable, dressed in an oversized shirt and with tears running down pale cheeks. The black hair was cut short and it seemed to stick in every direction, defying gravity.

Despite being shocked and yelled at, the child didn't protest not move to get away from the muggle, indicating that this was not a one time occasion.

When the muggle had finished yelling and threw the child back into the cupboard even Voldemort couldn't withhold a small wince. It seemed like his little seer hadn't been far enough from the door when it had been closed.

Voldemort withdrew from the memory when the muggle went upstairs, seemingly satisfied that loud and fearful screams could no longer be heard. The sound of soft crying followed Voldemort from the first memory and into the next one.

By the soft light coming through the window he would say that it was early morning. He was back in the living room which had been decorated in everything from fat angles to ornaments made by a child's hands.

Three people were assembled in the room despite the early hour. Two of them needed to start losing weight badly, though by the way they kept scoping food into their mouths it was not going to happen anytime soon.

Two of the people were the Dursley pair and the second woman had a strong resemblance to the male Dursley, most likely a sister of his. At the woman's feet a ridiculous looking dog laid, gnawing on a bone and drooling on the floor, much to Mrs. Dursley's open dismay, though the muggle didn't voice her opinion.

Voldemort sneered at the animal. He had never been fond of dogs. They followed their master's orders blindly and were too thrusting and loyal to have a single thought of their own.

No, cats were by far much better. They looked down on everyone, even the one feeding them. They came and went as they wanted. Woe the one who dared to try and demand what a cat should do. Other than snakes, cats were the only animal Voldemort could tolerate.

The sound of footsteps rose Voldemort from his musings. With the others in the room Voldemort turned his head to look at where the sound came from. It sounded like a herd of elephants was heading their way.

The dark lord didn't bother to hide his scowl when a small child came running into the room. He disliked children this young. They had no sense of order and were unlikely to listen to anything others told them and one could not hold a conversation about important things. Much like most teenagers whom had not grown up in a pureblood home.

But this child was not small and what it was doing was more like quick wobbling rather than running. And it was blond, meaning that it was not Harry who had arrived.

Completely ignoring the other persons in the room the pig looking child hurried of to the Christmas tree and the big pile of presents surrounding said tree.

"That's my boy, he knows what he wants and goes straight for it. He is going to be something big, I just know it." Dursley stated as if he couldn't be any prouder, while the sister nodded in agreement and the wife got busy taking pictures as the mini monster tore through the gifts.

It was the dog's growling which alerted Voldemort that someone had arrived without him noticing it, and he turned around to face the newly arrived.

In the doorway a rather small and slightly younger looking Harry than from the last memory stood. Like the last time the child was dressed in an oversized T-shirt which seemed to swallow his whole body. Looking from one child to another Voldemort realised that Harry was wearing the other child's cast off.

The family was not poor, not with all the gifts they were able to afford. So Harry was dressed like that because his guardians desired it. Voldemort was sure that some muggles saw it as a style to dress like tramps, but Harry was much too young to have that kind of interest.

The boy stood half hidden behind the door frame. Big green eyes were darting around, taking in every detail from thick framed glasses where the nose piece was held together by tape.

The black hair was messed up, indicating that the child had just awoken.

It was rather startling to think that the two boys were supposed to be peers and yet they were so different.

"Boy, what are you doing here!?" At the uncle's yell Harry flinched, raising his hands to protect himself and closing his eyes, as if he expected hits to follow the man's words. As he moved his arms, the T-shirt slipped down, revealing a dark bruise at the child's shoulder.

It looked like someone had grabbed the child with too much force for it to be accidental.

Before the man could do anything the second woman spoke up, gaining the attention of her brother. "Calm down Vernon, let the boy join us. It's Christmas after all." She said, draining another glass of gin though she sounded like she had gotten more than enough already by how tipsy her voice sounded.

"You heard what Aunt Marge said. Come in here and don't you dare to touch anything." The adults went back to cooing over the other child, seemingly forgetting all about the dark haired one.

The way Harry had flinched at the threat and the memory Voldemort had viewed before left no doubt in the dark lord's mind that it was not empty words the muggle had spurted.

It made his anger rise, and when he got out of this mind someone would have to pay for this.

Now where the attention was away from him, Harry tootled into the living room. The child kept close to the wall and made sure that he had a clear way to the door. It was interesting to observe how early Harry had taken Slytherin instincts to him. It was just a shame that it was for survival rather than pulling pranks on people.

Not quite by the tree Harry stopped and crouched down. The child's attention was wholly focussed on the muggle child, who by now was surrounded by ripped gift wrappings. Despite his young age Harry made no move to reach out for any of the gifts. Almost as if he feared that there would be consequences if he attempted to touch anything.

Instead the child's lips were moving, as his gaze shifted from one gift to another, but Voldemort was not close enough to hear what was being said.

It was a shame that the same could not been said about the cousin.

"Santa only gives gifts to good kids, freak." The blond one taunted, pushing aside a bright yellow toy truck so he could get his hands on the next gift.

When a determined light was lit in Harry's eyes, Voldemort was at one time eager and anxious. Had the seer been magical he would have retailed with a burst of accidental magic, as children at his age were prone to do. Since Harry's didn't have that kind of magic, he would have to find another way to get back on the cousin. And by the looks of it, Harry didn't pause a moment to think of the consequences this might have.

Too calm for a child at his age Harry lifted his hand and pointed at the gifts still laying unwrapped under the tree. "T.V., Game and Watch, Action Man."

"Dad he's doing it again!"

For a moment, it seemed like time itself had stopped at the obese child's screech. Even Voldemort could feel the sudden high tension, though he was not really a part of the memory.

Ever so slowly, almost unnaturally the muggle male's head turned so the small beetle eyes were resting at the frozen child. "Boy!"

Harry was already gone, and though none of the Dursleys made a move to go after him, it didn't ease Voldemort's worry. After all, the dog had followed after the child as soon as Harry had left. And judging by the way the creature had crept along the floor, it didn't harbour friendly intentions.

The others continued, as if they hadn't seen the predator following after the boy. The woman, Marge, scoffed as she leaned back in the sofa, the furniture groaning under her weight. "That boy is going to turn out like his good for nothing parents. They abandoned him and he should be thankful that you have taken him in. Telling Dudley what he is getting just because he saw you wrap up the gifts, Petunia. I keep telling you, that the boy needs to be controlled. Nothing works like a good old caning."

By now Voldemort had added three more to the list of those he would need to take care of in the near future. A fearful scream followed him out of the memory, letting Voldemort know that Harry had not managed to get away from the dog.

Memory after memory was viewed and though his anger grew into cold fury Voldemort went on, not being the slightest careful about the damage he was doing to the muggle's mind.

He witnessed the morning when Vernon Dursley was awoken by his wife's shrill scream when she found a sleeping baby on the doorstep.

Over the man's shoulder he read the letter which had followed with the small toddler. It explained how the baby, Harry, was without magic and how Lily and James thought it would be best for their son to grow up with the Dursleys since they were muggles, their world was at war, and Harry's squib status was generally looked down on.

Silently fuming Voldemort witnessed how they swore to stump any freakiness out of him, the moment the baby proved to be just like his parents. Because they didn't want their darling Dudley to catch anything from him they placed the still sleeping toddler in the cupboard, happily forgetting all about it until said child woke up wailing.

With growing frustration Voldemort watched the seer grow up. How he was poked, pushed and taunted by his cousin, and beaten when other children came on visits. How the aunt sneered every time he was near and she blatantly refused to touch the child unless she had no way of getting out of it.

The adults didn't hit the child at least not until the visions started. And even then they avoided touching him unless it was to yank him in or out of the cupboard.

The last memory he viewed proved to be the last time Vernon Dursley would see his nephew.

The orange leaves on the trees outside proved it to be fall, and it was dark, much like the night where Harry had been left on their doorstep. This time only two people were in the room. The obese muggle and surprisingly also Harry. For once the child, looking slightly older than the last memory he had viewed, wasn't dressed in rag which was about to fall apart. But the short and the T-shirt were about to slip off every time the child made even the smallest movement.

The child, looking no older than four, though Voldemort knew that five was more likely, sat on the floor with a small rucksack clutched tightly to his chest. His head was bowed so the hair laid his face in shadows. Still it didn't escape Voldemort's notice how pale and still the child was. It was unnatural. No child he had seen at that age had been able to sit still for that long.

Some of the tenseness broke when the doorbell rung, making Dursley get on his feet and waddle to the door, Voldemort following closely behind.

"About time you came." Dursley said as he opened the door, not bothering with greeting the person he had been waiting for.

Unlike him, Albus Dumbledore had not bothered with dressing to something less eye catching before coming here. But Voldemort had showed up without being invited, so that probably made them even. "Good evening Mr. Dursley, as you already-"

"Get inside before anyone sees you." Dursley interrupted the wizard's greeting, grudgingly stepping aside so the older male was allowed inside the house. Voldemort smirked when the muggle quickly glanced to both sides, as if he feared that someone might be watching the interaction, before the door closed with a slam.

Together they went back to the kitchen. Each time the leader of the rebels made signs of stopping to admire something which would not be found in the Wizarding world the muggle ushered him forward, obviously eager to get over with this.

Harry didn't even look up when his uncle and Dumbledore entered the kitchen, but the way his body grew tense made it clear that the child was aware of their presence.

Abandoning the muggle Dumbledore went directly for the child, Voldemort followed closely behind. Even if he had no way to act if something happened, he didn't want to miss it in case that Dumbledore did something which could prove to be important.

Surprisingly easy for a man of his age Dumbledore crouched down, so he no longer stood towering over the child. Still Harry made no sign of acknowledging the man. If anything, he looked rigid and ready to faint if he didn't start breathing soon.

"Hello Harry, I am Albus Dumbledore." When the child did not react, Dumbledore carried on. "I was a friend of your parents when they were alive."

"Are you a good for nothing freak too?" Finally came a reaction, and if not because Voldemort knew that this Harry included himself in that statement, he would have been gleeful over the expression on the former headmaster's face.

Dumbledore looked like he was about to choke on one of his own lemon drops. "No my boy, I am a wizard and so were your parents."

"Magic doesn't exist." It was painful to hear the monotone voice, knowing that this Harry believed every word he said.

Voldemort had to congratulate Dumbledore on his self control. Had he been in the other wizard's shoes he would have cursed the muggle for making a child believe that magic truly did not exist. Which would probably not have made the best first impression.

At the same time he wanted to be there. Even someone who wanted to think the best of muggles should have been able to see that something was wrong, and yet Dumbledore acted as if everything was in the finest order.

Instead the old man decided to scold the child. "Now Harry, don't speak like that. Magic is real. How else will you explain those dreams of yours your aunt told me about?"

At this Harry's head snapped up, his eyes wide behind the thick glasses. Despite mountains of questions probably building up inside him, Harry didn't voice a single of them.

Smiling now where he had Harry's full attention Dumbledore placed a hand on the child's shoulder, ignoring the way the boy leaned away from him without breaking the contact. "Since you don't have magic, your parents left you here to protect you. There is a war going on in our world, and the dream I was told you saw was a vision about how your parents died before it even happened. You are a seer, my boy, imagine how many lives you can save by using your abilities for the Greater good. That is why I have come to bring you with me."

Not saying more Dumbledore stood, and, to Voldemort's dismay, so did Harry. Without letting go of the child Dumbledore steered Harry out of the house after getting him to say goodbye to his uncle, which was done grudgingly.

Voldemort could do nothing as he watched Harry leaving the house. He wanted to follow so he would learn what happened next, but since the muggle didn't leave the house he was forced to stay.

Withdrawing from the muggle's mind Voldemort didn't waste a moment to take his anger out on the man. "Crucio." While the muggle fell to the floor and wiggled under the spell, he didn't scream.

Ending the cruse much too soon for his liking Voldemort stared down at the lax muggle. Perhaps he should have been more careful when he had rummaged through the muggle's mind. As it was the man had a vacant look in his eyes and he was creating a small pool of drool on the floor.

A gasp drew Voldemort's attention to the doorway. The same one Harry had been hiding behind at the Boxing Day. A shattering noise followed when the female Dursley dropped the tray and its contents broke and spread over the floor.

With a quick lash of his magic, Voldemort ensured that the woman would not be able to flee. Not that she made any attempts to leave at the current moment. But he often found that people acted irrational when they faced something they feared.

"Petunia, why do you not join us? It seems like your husband is indispensable at the moment, but I am sure that you will not mind keeping me entertained." As he spoke he took forth his wand, making sure that the muggle could see it. While he didn't need it, he wanted the woman to know what she was dealing with.

The woman proved to be marginally smarter than her husband. At least she did not start spurting nonsense about him being a freak. It was fortunate for him. Voldemort was not sure he could keep control over his anger if she attempted to test his patience.

"Who are you?" Her voice and body shock as she spoke. Her eyes were glazed as they rested on the jerking body of her husband. Despite the muggle's mind having been broken under Voldemort's attack it seemed like the nerves were working just fine.

Voldemort let himself relax in the chair, knowing what kind of message it would send to the woman. He did not see her as a threat and therefore saw no reason to not loosen up a little.

"I know that the letter your sister sent you mentioned me as one of the reasons as to why she was sending her son to live with you."

He allowed her enough time to draw her own conclusion. When understanding dawned on her face, Voldemort let a smile grace his lips. "You are that Voldemort person. But Lily wrote that the wards she had set up that night would stop you from finding us." As she spoke, the woman took a step backwards, only to be stopped by a barrier that momently became visible when she tried to leave through the door.

"Crucio." Voldemort only held the curse long enough for her to fall to the floor and writhe in pain. It happened far sooner than he had hoped and he ended the curse, not wanting to lose another toy so soon in the game. "To you it's Lord Voldemort. My kind and I are far above you muggles and you will speak to me with the respect I deserve." Getting a shaky nod Voldemort continued, easily ignoring the sobbing which had started as soon as he had broken off the curse.

"And it's true that there was a ward around this house. It was a simpler form of the bloodward, but it would have been far more effective if Lily Potter had given up her life instead of a few drops of her blood. Normally it would have been enough to keep you protected, but you are missing two very important factors for the ward to work."

Seeing that the woman was not paying proper attention to him, Voldemort made her fingers on one hand bend backwards until they snapped. The crying, which had lessened slightly while he spoke, returned with renewed strength.

"The wards were keyed to her son. And since he is not here, there is nothing to renew their power and they weakened over the years. That is, if they had worked properly in the first place. I know that your sister pointed out how important it was for you to love Harry as if he was your own child. For the ward to work, love would have to be there, which I will say that it was missing from the moment you discovered your nephew on your doorstep. You and that husband of yours went out of your way to make this place a hell to Harry."

The woman sobbed and clutched her broken hand protectively to her chest. "If you want the boy, it's too late. When we heard that Lily and her husband had gotten themselves blown up, I told the headmaster that the boy was just as big a freak as my sister had been. He came and took the boy, I haven't seen him since then. Thank-"

Voldemort cut off the woman's rant by breaking her remaining fingers. "Watch your tongue muggle when you speak to me, or you will soon find yourself without one."

Standing Voldemort walked over to the woman. He used the end of his black shoe to tilt her face so she was looking up at him. Fear was dominant in her eyes. "I already have your nephew, and unlike those who were supposed to care for him in his life, I don't intend to let him leave my side. No, I am here because of what occurred to my seer while he was in your so called care."

The aunt's eyes had grown impossible wide at Voldemort's words. Perhaps she was finally starting to understand the seriousness of the situation. "We gave him a roof over his head, and we feed and clothed him out of the goodness of our hearts."

"Basic things which anyone can do, and a stranger would manage to do a better job than you. He was rarely touched; none of you comforted him after a nightmare or a vision. The clothes you gave him were second hand from your oaf of a son. He was feed when you bothered to remember his existence and the room you so graciously gave him was a cupboard under the stairs. How can you claim to care about him when you never stopped your son or husband from taking their anger out on a defenceless child? What would you feel if I did the same to what was yours?"

The woman whimpered at his words. "Not my Dudley. Please, spare my son. Do what you want with us, but don't hurt him."

She looked hopeful up at him as he crouched down with a smile that could almost be called gentle. "I will protect your son, the same way you looked out for your nephew and made sure that no harm came to him." He promised, making her blanch at his words. "Don't assume that I need permission from something like you. In case you have not realised it yet, you are at my mercy, and it is widely known that I have none. Now I believe I made it clear what would happen if you interrupted me again. Unfortunately, since I still want to be able to hear what you say, I guess that the tongue will stay."

Voldemort didn't allow her relieved expression to stay for long. "But there is no need for your teeth any longer."

One by one Voldemort ripped her teeth out with his wand, not using the usual spell which was meant to stop the bleedings. The teeth were placed on the table, as small white trophies for the world to see. When she passed out, Voldemort immediately brought her back. He did not want her to miss a single thing of what happened to her.

At the end a broken mess laid on the once cream coloured carpet. The muggle's breath was coming out in hash huffs, the only sound to be heard in the room since the other muggle had stayed silent through the whole ordeal, though his small beetle eyes were opened so Voldemort assumed that somewhere in his mind the male Dursley was watching what happened to his wife, unable to do anything to stop it.

Feeling much better than when he had left Hogwarts, Voldemort swirled his wand slowly, knowing that the woman was watching and feared what would happen next.

Glancing out of the window, Voldemort frowned upon seeing the black sky. "It seems like I have spent more time here than I originally intended to." Standing Voldemort looked down at the woman. A bone was sticking out through the skin of her leg and the other one was a purple, swollen limb.

"You will probably be pleased to hear that I do not intend to dirty my hands by killing you. Incendio." With the spell he put several places on fire and started walking out of the living room. "But I suggest that you do hurry. It will not take long for this fire to spread and I promise that by the time that anyone notices what is going on, it will be too late for them to help you."

With that he left the living room, knowing that she wouldn't make it out in time. Especially not when he lit small fires along his way out. The husband was already doomed. There was no way that she would be able to drag him out with her, even if she hadn't been damaged beforehand.

At the door to the cupboard Voldemort paused. When he had arrived here he had paid the closet no notice, having had no idea about what role such a negligible thing played. Now he knew better. Knowing that he had limited time Voldemort opened the cupboard door. There was much less space than he had appreciated that there would be.

It was filled with cleaning supplies and bore no signs that a child should have lived there for four years.

Disgusted with those beings that allowed themselves to be called humans, Voldemort shut the door with gentleness, remembering how many times small fingers had been caught there.

Feeling the heat from the flames which were spreading quickly, Voldemort apparated away.

He appeared in his own room where the light had went to be nearly non-existing. "_You stink of fire_." The snake hissed from where she lay on the bed. Deciding to ignore Nagini's comment for now, Voldemort cast a Scourgify on himself instead.

"_Have there been any troubles in my absence_?" He asked, moving over to the bed where Nagini and the young man were.

Harry was in a deep state of sleep if his breathing was anything to go by. He hadn't even reacted to the noise when Voldemort had apparated inside the room.

The young man was sleeping on his side, his right arm caught between his head and the pillow. The hair was loose and spread out like a dark halo. His lips were parted, allowing the seer to breathe through his mouth.

The scene was so different from the bathroom, where anger had been the dominating emotion, and yet Voldemort found himself just as captivated by the sight. Above the collar of the nightshirt the mark he had left was visible.

Anyone who saw this would know that the seer belonged to him. Woe to the one who decided to try and change it.

Now all he needed was to make Harry see this.

"_He declared that the shower was evil since it wouldn't let him out before he nearly ran head first into the glass. And he wouldn't eat his meal, foolish little seer_." A smile tugged at Voldemort's lips at Nagini's words. The shower stall was spelled so one needed to speak Parseltongue to make the door open. It was a safety measure and the only way to override it was if you were in danger. He had no intention about accidentally drowning in his shower after all.

But the smile disappeared again. Perhaps he needed to assign someone to look after the seer's personal needs. It didn't do for the youth to miss meals even if he could excuse it with worry for his friend.

Sighing Voldemort cast a last glance at Harry before turning away. For tonight he would sleep somewhere else. Already he had been pushing the youth's limits. It was far too soon for them to share a bed. From what Nagini had told him about what had happened when Harry awoke this morning, it would be counterproductive for his plans.

So for the first time in his life Voldemort conjured a pillow and cover before lying down on the enlarged sofa in the room, where he would be able to keep an eye on the bed and the person on it.

Tomorrow he would show Harry where he would sleep for the current time. The houseelves should already be done with the preparations.

He would see it when he showed Harry the new room. It would also give him the opportunity to watch the seer's reaction.

**Next: No idea, Mortimus broke my crystal ball and I haven't been able to find a new one.**

**And I strongly recommend The Days of a Flower by yaoigirl22. Go and review it, I want to see Voldemort get his butt kicked by the healer. **

**Until next time. **


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

Unwilling to give up on sleep just yet Harry burrowed deeper into the warm covers with a satisfied grumble.

Once again he felt something draped over his thigh and chest. But this time he didn't panic. Perhaps it was because he had been awake when Nagini had joined him in the bed. It was strange how easy it was to get used to share a bed with someone.

Maybe he should ask Nagini whether she wanted to come with him when he returned to his and Severus' quarters.

The Potions master was unlikely to protest. Severus had long since made it clear that Harry decided who was allowed to enter his room.

If that meant an unnatural big snake who happened to be the dark lord's familiar, then so it be.

Realising that sleep was not about to return no matter how long he waited, Harry growled under his breath.

Finally he opened his eyes, rubbing the sleep out of them with one hand. Other than a slight widening of his eyes Harry gave no outwardly reaction to find Nagini's triangular formed head resting at the same pillow which Harry himself was occupying.

Seeing that she was asleep Harry managed to push himself away from the parts of her body which had previously kept him pinned to the bed. Every move was done with the absolute carefulness as he didn't feel the need to discover if Nagini was a morning person.

Since no light was slipping through the closed curtains, Harry would make a guess and say that it was still early. Either that or the curtains had been spelled to keep out sunlight.

Like his own room a dim light was lit, just enough to let him see his surroundings. When Harry had argued that he didn't need a bloody night light, Severus had calmly counter that since Harry couldn't use magic, he wouldn't be able to cast Lumos if he got up in the middle of the night. Apparently the Potions master didn't want to take care of bloodied toes.

After waking up after the first nightmare, the eleven years old squib had been thankful for the night light, though he hadn't said anything to Severus.

By the look the man had given him shortly after Harry had been awoken by said nightmare, Harry hadn't needed to voice his thoughts.

But this was not his room, so why was it lit up like this?

A soft snore drew Harry from his musings. Harry located the source of the sound on a couch on the other side of the room. Frowning slightly the seer slipped out of the bed, shivering when his bare feet came in contact with the cold floor.

Barely breathing Harry crossed the floor, making no sound as he walked. Coming to halt near the couch, Harry stared down at the sleeping figure on it. Shifting from one foot to another, Harry debated with himself what to do. He doubted very much that the doors would have been unlocked so he could wander off as he wanted to.

Considering that this were Voldemort's quarters he should have known that it was the dark lord's bed he had been occupying.

Still, he had thought that the man would find somewhere else to sleep. Or sneak into the bed while Harry was asleep, or perhaps kick Harry out of it so he could get the space for himself.

Nothing that he knew about the dark lord hinted that the man would ever be willing to sleep on the couch.

Though he didn't know the reasons for Voldemort's choice, this small thing made him seem more humanlike.

It didn't mean that the man was still not a bastard for what he had done to Draco just yesterday.

Rubbing the scar on his forehead in frustration Harry turned his attention back to said man.

It was disturbing to see how much sleep could change people. Looking at him now, it was hard to believe that this man was the dark lord and ruled the whole Great Britain. The usual seriousness in his whole person was gone, and the dark hair was sleep mused

Shaking his head Harry went back to simply watching Voldemort. Considering how much the man went up in looking presentable all the time, it was strange to see him this relaxed. Seeing a lock having fallen on the man's face Harry reached out and pushed it back to the rest of the hair.

Briefly he wondered how many people knew how silky the hair felt when you ran your fingers through it and he had to get a grip on himself to not repeat the motion.

Voldemort smiled, indicating that he was having a pleasant dream.

When Voldemort shifted in his sleep, Harry jumped back, fearing that he might have woken the man by touching him. The back of his knees connected with the edge of a table, nearly sending Harry falling before he managed to regain his balance.

Holding his breath Harry looked back at Voldemort, letting it out when he saw that the noise had miraculously not woken the man.

The breath disappeared from his lungs wholly when Harry realised that Voldemort's shifting had made some of the cover fall down at the floor while he had been otherwise distracted.

Now where Voldemort lay on his back, Harry was allowed a full view of the man's front. Starting from the top Harry's eyes slowly wandered over Voldemort's chest, as if they had a mind of their own. It was well defined and considering how close Harry had found himself being to the man already he was not surprised to spot what looked as the beginning of a six-pack.

Like him, Voldemort had a fair share of scars, though none of them were bigger than Harry's pinkie. Considering what Voldemort had told him about his upbringing in the bank, Harry was not surprised to see this.

He knew how cruel some muggles could be.

From the navel and downwards a trail of dark hair covered the otherwise pale skin. Harry's eyes came to stop as the remaining part of the blanket covered everything else from view. However, the edge of dark green undergarments was barely visible when he leaned closer and tilted his head to the side.

Realising what he was doing, Harry snapped up in a straight position, his green eyes horrified wide. Had he really been checking out Voldemort? He made a strangled noise and sprinted to the bathroom. Some cold water might do something about the blood running to his cheeks and a certain other part of his anatomy Harry would have preferred had stayed unaffected.

Had he bothered looking back, he might have seen the red eyes dancing with mirth as they watched him flee.

**)00(**

Head slightly bowed to avoid unwanted eye contact Harry had to lengthen his steps to be able to follow with Voldemort's quick paces.

As soon as the dark lord was recognised people gave the pair a wide berth. Sullenly Harry glared at a reporter when another flash went off, blinding him, indicating that yet another picture of them had just been taken.

He had known that this would be a bad idea and had attempted to make Voldemort rethink his decision reminding the dark lord that he was supposed to rest. Harry doubted that it included following in the heels of the man the whole day.

Unfortunately, Voldemort had wanted to hear nothing of it and had Apparated them out of the quarters after they had both dressed and had a quick breakfast.

His last visit to the Ministry had been rather short and Harry had to admit that this time it was different. Gone were the colourful banners and music. Instead airborne papers flew around as if having a mind of their own and people were moving with a destination in mind. Well, at least those who were not just staring at them like fools.

Uncaring about what kind of impression he was making, Harry burrowed his hands in the depth of his pockets with a dark scowl.

The Ministry was not a place he had planned on spending his time in. He would much rather check up on Draco to ensure that his friend was okay. Nagini had been so kind to sneak out sometime during the night to do this for him.

But the snake was not trained to spot whatever damage which could have appeared on Draco, and besides the blond had been asleep when the snake visited him. Harry knew that his mind would only be at rest when he was able to see Draco's state with his own eyes.

But it didn't seem like it was going to be happening anytime soon.

Voldemort had proved to have other plans for the day. Apparently the man had been serious when he had said that he intended to keep Harry with him and only allow him to leave with a proper escort.

Until now Harry had only managed to be alone when he had went to the bathroom and it had been cut short when said dark lord threatened to come in if he didn't hurry up.

Glancing up at Voldemort Harry watched his blank expression. It was truly a wonder to watch the many moods the man seems to produce. Perhaps he should get someone to evaluate the man. Having that much power was bound to mess with one's head. Perhaps he had developed schizophrenia?

That thought made Harry take a step away from Voldemort, only to retreat when he realised that it brought him closer to the reporters.

"My lord, a short moment of your time would be appreciated." Harry's eyes snapped to a woman with blonde hair set in elaborate curls that contrasted her heavy jawed face. The spectacles she wore were studded with rhinestones and Harry found his eyes moving to her thick fingers which ended in blood coloured nails.

They reminded him of claws.

In one hand she was holding a crocodile-skin handbag, as she spoke she produced an acid green Quick-Quotes Quill from it.

Unlike those around her the woman was dressed in clothes of green leather and over them magenta coloured robes with maroon furs on the collar and sleeves.

Rita Skeeter.

Considering that she was one of the most loved journalists and known for twisting a story as she saw it fit, Harry was not really surprised that she had been the one to approach them. Until now Harry had thought that they would be able to make it to their destination without any delays.

It seemed like luck just wasn't on his side this day.

The journalist took the following silence as a sign for her to carry on. "Sirius Black's trial is today, which I assume is the reason to why you are here, my lord. Do you know what the outcome will be?" As she spoke the quill moved over a parchment in a rapidly pace. Harry found his gaze drawn to it. He had a feeling that the quill was not simply writing what was being said. It had already used up too much parchment for that to be the case.

"Despite having joined the rebels after graduating from Hogwarts, he is still Lord Black and will remain so until the day he passes away." Voldemort reprimanded the woman, leaving Harry to wonder if that was a hint on the fate which awaited Black after today's trial. He knew that a pronouncement would later be made so the reporters assembled would be able to able to know what they could write in their articles which would undoubtedly come out with the new paper the very next day.

When her gaze fell on him, Harry wanted to bare his teeth to warn the woman off. However he managed to stomp the urge down before he could decided to follow it. It wouldn't do to make people think that he was some kind of a scavenger.

"May I ask if the rumours regarding you and this squib is true, my lord? There has never been a seer before in the Potter line. Do you suspect that it has something to do with the mother? Does adding muggle blood to the old lines actually has a positive effect and brings out old abilities? How will this discovery affect the rights of the squibs? Mr. Potter how do you believe your parents would react to the news of you having sworn yourself to the dark lord? They were after all known enemies of our Lord and died fighting against him."

Yup, Skeeter was now officially on the list of people he didn't like. Not on the list of people he hated, but if she carried on like this, she might just end there.

"You really should check up on your information before you attempt to find a angle on whatever story you are planning on writing." Harry spoke loud and clear enough for those people around to be able to listen in on what was being said. He figured that it would lessen the rumours which would be following afterwards.

...

Well, at least he was allowed to hope.

"Since I am still a minor, any citing you are interested in doing of me has to be done with the permission of my guardian, if not you are overstepping the law." Seeing the consideration in some of the faces of the reporters Harry added with glee. "In case that some of you are still interested my caretaker is Severus Snape, Potions master at Hogwarts." Some of the reporters were young enough to have been taught by the man if they had went to Hogwarts, and the others certainly knew of the reputation Severus had made of himself.

When he saw the Potions master again he would remember to inform him that those who had been taught higher levels of Potions at Hogwarts still remembered the name and the fear it brought.

"Secondly." Harry held two fingers up, figuring that it would help those who needed something visible to keep their attention. "I am a squib, but I'm still the last living male of the Potter line. Since I was never disinherited it means that I am Lord Potter." Harry's attention was mostly split between Skeeter and her quill. He would have loved to see Voldemort's face when hearing this, but Skeeter might see it as a sign of weakness if he as much as glanced in the other male's direction.

"Thirdly." He said, adding a last finger to the pair. "How is it possible to judge someone for their parent's doings? Let me use Black as an example. Both of his parents were dark wizards who followed the Old ways but Black ran off at the first chance he got and supports Albus Dumbledore." The quill moved furiously in an attempt to keep up with the speed of Harry's speech.

Briefly he wondered if the thing would burst into flames if someone spoke quickly enough.

Considering that those things could write down the happenings of a professional Quidditch match while said match was going on, Harry knew that it was unlikely.

As an experienced journalist Skeeter had to know the rules. She constantly toed at the line, but those few times she overstepped the boundaries someone else were conveniently there to take the blame for the havoc she had managed to create.

A somewhat cold smile was sent in his directing before the woman turned her attention to Voldemort, entirely dismissing Harry as if what he had said meant nothing.

It was not surprising since Voldemort was the dark lord and thus was bound to be more interesting in people's eyes.

Not that Harry was jealous of the man. Already he was running low on his reserves of being able to be around this many people at ones and having to act polite. It was so different from the scorn he had been met with.

But he missed being ignored as it gave him much more chance to move around without being under supervision.

"My lord, does the revelation of a seer change anything about the squibs? Do you believe that there might be others out there who have been hiding what they can do? If so, how do you intend to locate those individuals, and how will you part the liars from those who really have some gift, and what if they do not want to use their abilities for the good of all of us?"

Somehow Harry had a feeling that the last statement was coined on him. It was after all what he had done after escaping from the Order of the Phoenix. But still he had done his best together with Severus to make sure that they had an advantage against Dumbledore's folks.

But people didn't know that, though it didn't stop Harry from feeling a flare of annoyance at her comment.

Voldemort had the reporters and Harry's whole attention as he spoke. "If there are more squibs out there who have an extraordinary ability, I recommend them to contact the Ministry. If their claim proves to be true, they will after all no longer be considered squibs since they are magical. While Britain is in a constant improvement, it can only continue if we all do our duty to our Mother country, everybody is able to make a difference."

Harry stomped down the urge to cover his ears when people around him started shouting, each of them wanting their questions answered and apparently they thought that the loudest one would be lucky.

When glancing at Voldemort Harry was able to catch a brief flash of infuriation before it disappeared, too fast for anyone else to catch the look.

The crowd were effective silenced without even having to take forth his wand. If they had not already been spelled the show of the dark lord's power would probably have been enough to spell most of them to silence.

By the looks of it, Skeeter only became exasperated at this.

"Now as you already know we are here today because of the trial of Lord Black, something I know that you all want to tell your readers about in tomorrow's papers. Unless you want to risk missing some important details, I suggest you move along since the trial will start shortly." Harry snorted at this, though it was drowned by the noise the suddenly moving reporters produced.

It was not like the trial would start without Voldemort being there. But even the most dim-witted person would have been able to hear the dismissing in the man's voice and who would dare to go against something Voldemort had said?

When he was about to follow with the reporters a hand clamping down on his shoulder stopped him in his track. A squeak left him when Harry found himself yanked in another direction, stumbling along to follow after Voldemort because of the hand on his person. With a raised eyebrow he silently asked the man what he was doing.

For a moment Harry wondered if Voldemort was going to answer. After all, Harry had been giving Voldemort the silent treatment since their argument this morning. If Voldemort wouldn't let him see Draco, Harry saw absolutely no reason to why he should talk to the man.

He heartedly planned on keeping this up until he had had a chance to talk with his ally inside Hogwarts whom would help him with getting some revenge on Voldemort.

He didn't bother to try and dig his heals into the ground. Voldemort was taller and broader than him, it would be a useless effort and a waste of energy.

"The elevators might have been expanded so they are able to contain a bigger number of people, but they will be cramped with the group of reporters. This way will let us arrive before the others." They moved away from the ever moving workers and Harry followed Voldemort despite the man no longer holding him.

It hadn't occurred to him that there would be another way to move around the different levels. But if the Ministry was ever attacked the elevators would not be safe to use.

And since it meant that they would spend less time with the journalists, it would only be good.

As they were quickly approaching a bare wall, which people walked a good distance from without even seeming to realise it, Harry felt his body tense up on its own accord. Since Voldemort didn't show any signs of slowing down, neither did Harry allow himself to do so.

When they passed through the seemingly solid wall Harry followed his instincts and closed his eyes.

It was only when he felt that he was out on the other side that Harry could breathe easily again and allowed his eyes to open. If Voldemort had noticed his actions, he wisely didn't comment.

But the dark lord was already moving on, walking down narrow staircases and Harry was forced to hurry after him if he didn't want to be left behind.

They continued their way down several stairs before stopping at a small platform with barely enough space for the two of them to stand close together.

Harry leaned slightly forward, getting his breathing calmed. While he was used to physical labour it had been a task to keep up with Voldemort's longer legs.

The dark lord was calm and collected and had somehow managed to not brush against any of the cobwebs that filled the hidden corridor they had wandered through. "_Could you do something about this_?" Harry asked, gesturing down at himself. Despite having tried to be careful his robes had spots of dust and cobwebs on them. And by the feeling of it, some of it was also in his hair.

It irked him that he had to ask the man for something. But there was no way he could get all this off before the trial started and it was not like he had thought of bringing extra robes with him.

Voldemort's magic washed over him like warm water, making Harry shiver in pleasure. When he looked down at himself he was satisfied to see that the dark green robes were as clean as they had been when Harry had put them on this morning.

At the same time Harry changed his robes' lower part a little, hoping that Voldemort had not noticed the strange reaction a certain part of Harry's anatomy had had to the feeling of Voldemort's magic brushing over him like a lover's caress.

A hand running over his braid reassured him that it was just as clean as the rest of him.

"_If you are done, we will proceed_." Already as he spoke Voldemort grabbed his arm and yanked him close before walking through yet another wall, making the seer stumble slightly over his feet before Harry regained his balance.

Harry blinked several times, trying to get his eyes quickly adjusted to the change to the brighter light which was in the room they had stepped into.

Though they had taken Voldemort's so called short cut the court had arrived before them and was already seated. With a hand resting on his back Harry was lead to the remaining two free seats.

The room was square with benches rising in levels along each wall. The whole thing was made by black stones and torches produced the unnatural bright light, leaving Harry to believe that something magical had been done to them.

Figuring that the throne like chair in the middle of the small row of seats would belong to Voldemort, Harry sunk down on the one to the right side with a barely audible sigh. Though the wound on his legs was already healed thanks to the wonder of magic, Harry was glad to get off of his feet.

Sitting down for almost three days straight while one's body tried to fight off the remains of the poison he had consumed seemed to have more negative effects that he had thought it would. He almost hoped that this trial would take long just so he didn't have to get going right away.

Straightening his back Harry showed back all signs of tiredness when the door in the corner of the room was opened.

A feeling of dread and helplessness filled him, treating to consume him as Black was brought in.

The Lord of an old and noble house was escorted by two humanoid shaped figures at roughly 10 feet high. They were covered in dark hooded cloaks made of a black, long cloth which was ripped.

The sound of its rattling breath led Harry to believe that those things were trying to suck more than air in. Their hands were visible, as the only part of the Dementors' bodies. They were glistering, had a greyish shade, and looked slimy and scabbed. The hands were used to hold Black up as he stumbled forward, giving a hint about how much their presence actually effected the lord.

Though their hoods were up, Harry had read enough books to have an idea about what could be found underneath. Their faces would be bare, with nothing but a large hole where their mouths should have been. It was what they used to suck the souls out of their unfortunate victims.

As the trio came closer, Harry felt like a hand of ice had closed itself around his very being and the hand tightening made it hard for him to breathe. The air came out in small huffs, visible in the suddenly much colder air.

"It is all for the Greater Good, my boy."

Harry wrapped his arms around his stomach, trying to fight of the sensation of his body suddenly being forced to stillness by invisible bounds. He knew that this was not real. It was the dementors' doing. They made those close to them relive some of their worst memories.

Blue eyes were twinkling down at him as the mouth of a vial was forced through his clamped together lips. His head was tilted back by the hand that had a painful grip on his hair. Harry could feel how the potion slowly slid down his throat, nearly suffocating him in the process.

Suddenly the sensation of being held down against his will and the potion were all gone. Bewildered Harry tried to figure out what exactly had happened. He was leaning heavily against someone, his head resting on their shoulder. Remembering who was sitting on his left side Harry sat up, ignoring the dizzy spell that hit him while he glanced sideways at Voldemort.

Green met red and when the ruby coloured eyes shifted to a spot in front of Harry, the seer found himself following the other's line of sight.

In front of him a small bowl filled with candy had appeared. The wrappings showed that it was some of Honeyduke's finest chocolate. A glance around him told that similar bowls had appeared in front of each of the seated people. The only one not grabbing the chocolate like a thirsty man in the Sahara who was being offered water, was Voldemort. In fact the man didn't look like he had been affected by the Dementors.

Munching on a piece of toffee Harry couldn't help but frown. It was common knowledge that chocolate helped fighting off the effect a Dementor had on people. The only reason Harry could think of was because chocolate triggered endorphins to be released from the brain, in the same way as sex would do, if the muggle scientists' words were to be believed.

Nearly choking on the sweet Harry stopped his thoughts before they could continue farther down the alley.

Even if it was true, Harry doubted that people would take off their clothes and have sex whenever they had been near a Dementor.

No, chocolate was much to be preferred. Black was standing alone in front of them, the Dementors nowhere in sight, and thought he didn't like the man Harry felt some admiration for him. Despite being caught, without his wand and handcuffed Black managed to stand proud and tall.

His stay in Hogwarts' dungeon had affected Black more than Harry had realised before now. The man's robes, someone had allowed him to change into fresh ones since Harry last saw him, was hanging down on him and he had a haunted look in his eyes, as if he already knew for sure what fate awaited him.

Despite it all Black showed not one ounce of fear. His shoulders were slightly slumped, but that seemed to be a part of the man's normal posture, and had nothing to do with the situation.

"Lord Black." Voldemort spoke, his voice easily reaching out in each corner of the room as if he was speaking to a whole gathering instead of the small group of people they made.

"You have been accused of planning to murder Lady Zabini, the knife you would have used for this was found on your person after your arrest. Also you are accused for high treason, and guilty for the death of several people, members of the British Wizarding world. Also, your bank reports show that you have been funding Albus Dumbledore, a well known terrorist. What do you have to say in your defence?"

Black's eyes had previously been focussed on the floor, but finally they lifted at Voldemort's question. A maniac grin was on his face, making Harry wonder if madness truly ran in the Blacks' blood such as the rumours told. "Guilty and proud of it as Hell. I've been fighting for a case I believe in and that is not something I plan on suddenly regretting. I believe in a better life for wizards, purebloods and muggleborns alike, can be made and nothing will change that."

He had to give it to Black, the man was brave. Either that or incredible stupid with no self pretence. According to Severus there was no difference between the things when it came to a Gryffindor. And Black seemed to be no different.

"Since you have admitted your guilt this court will now find a penalty fitting your crimes." A silvery barrier appeared around Black, cutting him off from the rest of the world and stopping the wizard from listening in on what would be discussed.

Against what Harry had believed, Voldemort didn't disk out a punishment for Black right away. Instead a wizard further down the row to the left spoke up. "One of his crimes were planning a murder of Lady Zabini. How come that this was when he was caught? It was my belief that the current head of the Black family had cut all those ties his family had built up through centuries. Is there a spy among Dumbledore's followers? If so, I say we bring the spy forth so we al can hear what the person knows. And how come they didn't stop any other attacks?"

The wizard spoke with a passion which bothered Harry. If he didn't know better he would say that the man sounded more interested in interrogating the so called spy than discussing a fitting sentence for Sirius Black.

"It was not a spy in the case you are thinking of, Lord Greengrass, that gave our Lord the information which led to Black's capture." Lord Malfoy answered from his seat at Voldemort's left side. "I know you have been rather distracted by my son courting your youngest daughter, but even then you should have been able to keep up with the news about our lord recruiting a seer into his service."

The low snort which followed after convinced Harry that Astoria Greengrass' had gotten her sceptically from her father. "My Lord, I do not mean to critique you, but do you believe that it is wise to take advice from a squib? What assurance is there, that he is not a charlatan or allied with Dumbledore?"

Harry was about to give the man a piece of his mind when someone got ahead of him.

"May I remind you, Ramsay, that the boy you are accusing of being our enemy is also the reason to why I'm alive today? Perhaps you should choose your words a little more carefully? After all, your little brother is among my suitors this time." The heavy accented voice, despite speaking in a low volume, was easily heard in the courtroom.

Eyes turned to the dark skinned woman at Harry's right. She wore cheerful yellow coloured robes with a white flower motive on it. Her hair was hanging down in elegant curls.

Harry's eyes widened when he realised that the woman he had been sitting next to all this time was the one he had seen Black murder.

Blaise's mum, Lady Zabini.

Also nicknamed the Black Widow because of her numerous husbands' deaths.

But she looked nothing like the woman he had seen in his vision. Neither bloody nor dead, but thankfully fully dressed.

Feeling the blood rush to his face Harry groaned under his breath, while he shifted slightly in the chair.

To Harry's surprise Greengrass backed down and no one commented on the direct threat the witch had made to his brother's life.

Of course no one had been able to prove that those deaths were anything but bad luck, but honestly how many times could she marry a wizard, only for him to die a little later and her to inherit everything he owned?

Though he didn't like having his loyalty questioned, especially by someone who knew absolutely nothing about him, Harry believed he knew where Greengrass was coming from.

Years back, squibs had been killed as soon as they were found to be without magic. If the parents couldn't do it, other family members were only too willing to do the deed to remove the strain from the family name. Squibs were either abandoned in the muggle world, or allowed to live in the Wizarding world long enough to decide whether they wanted to stay or join the Muggles.

But those who stayed in the Wizarding world, mostly because that was where their family was and they knew nothing about the muggle one, were second rated people. Below those able to wield a wand and over the creatures and beings.

Was it really a wonder that some wanted to improve their lives with a little lying?

In the time Harry's attention had been elsewhere a full blown discussion had started. The court was split about what to do with Black.

Some wanted to let him live on the argument that not only was he a pureblood, but he was also the head of a house. Surely something could be done so he would be able to realise his mistakes and they would not have to lose a member of the pureblood elite.

Harry withheld a snort. Bare the part with purebloods, it almost sounded like something Dumbledore could have said. From what Harry knew the man was rather big on giving people second chances, no matter if they deserved said chances or not.

Others, such as Lady Zabini, were calling for Black's blood. Since she had been Black's intended victim, it was understandable that the dark skinned woman didn't want to see Black walk away with a simple slap over the fingers.

In the end it was settled with a simple voting.

The barrier around Black was dissolved, leaving the man free to hear what his punishment would be.

But from the acceptance in his eyes, Harry knew that the man was aware of what the outcome would be.

In a flourish move Voldemort stood, effectively drawing attention to his person as he stood above them all, looking down at the prisoner as if Black was the only person existing in the world.

No one could feel comfortable with having Voldemort staring at them as if they were an ant and he was thinking about stepping on them.

But it seemed rather intense the way Voldemort's whole attention was focused solely on Black.

"Lord Black, this council has reached a decision. For your treason your title as a Lord has been removed from you and will be given to your nearest male blood relative, or to the person in your will, should it be found in Gringotts' achieves." A brief expression of sadness passed over Black's face, but it was gone before Harry could attempt to figure out why it had even appeared.

The seer rubbed his temples, trying to hold the up building headache at bay. He really didn't want to see anything right now. But the pain located behind his eyeballs was growing with an almost alarming speed.

Cold sweat was forming on his forehead as Harry leaned back in the chair, not thrusting himself to not buckle forward and bang his head into the table. Though hiding his hands underneath his sleeves Harry could still feel how they shock.

A small hand carefully touching his lower arm nearly sent Harry flying out of his chair in fright. Instead he turned his head ever so slightly to meet concerned dark eyes. Managing a smile which felt more like a grimace, Harry closed his eyes and let himself sink into the vision.

On a dais stood a tall stone pointed archway, looking so old, cracked and somewhat fragile that is was amazing that the thing was still standing. A tattered curtain hung at the archway, reminding Harry of a Dementor's cloak bare the fact that it was black instead of dirty grey. The cloth swayed and gently fluttered, as if there was something on the other side of it that was running its fingers over the fabric in an uneven pattern.

Vaguely Harry was aware that something was going on behind him. He could hear voices, belonging to people he knew, but it all sounded so distinct as if they were far away from him. His feet wouldn't let him move to look what was going on behind him, instead Harry was rooted in the spot, not being able to look away from the archway in front of him.

He lifted a hand, not sure if he really wanted to touch the thing, but he was curious. Would he be able to feel something, if he touched the fabric? Or would there simply be nothing behind it?

The choice of what to do was taken from him when Harry got a powerful shove from behind, sending him stumbling forward and directly into the archway he had been regarding.

Unlike what Harry had thought, he didn't meet hard surface when he fell, nor did he fall right through the archway and simply land on the other side of the dais.

It felt like thousands small hands belonging to babies were grabbing him, pulling him with them inside whatever was behind the fabric.

Faint whispering and murmuring noises surrounded him, drowning out whatever else clatter that might have been.

He fell into a world of grey, thick mist.

Harry's eyes snapped open with a small gasp for air. His chest was moving in a rapid pace, as if he had just finished running a long marathon.

He was staring into the dark eyes of Lady Zabini, the woman who still had a hand on his arm. It was only the fact that the hand was too big to belong to one of those that had pulled him into the archway that stopped Harry from running as fast away as his feet could carry him.

"Lord Potter, are you feeling well?" She spoke with a low voice, as if speaking to an animal she didn't want to startle.

Nodding Harry turned his head slightly when he saw something move out of the corner of his eye.

Lucius Malfoy was standing a little away, watching the pair with an unreadable expression. "Where is everybody else?" Harry asked, only now noticing that the room was vacant from other people than them.

"They have proceeded on to watch Black's punishment be fulfilled." It was Lucius who answered Harry's question. "What did you see?"

Now Harry understood why Draco's father had stayed behind. They had probably realised that he was in the middle of a vision when the room was being cleaned out. And as the leader Voldemort was unable to stay behind to hear what Harry had seen since he had to overlook Black's punishment.

The hand let go of him when Harry leaned forward, though he couldn't truly ignore the looks of concern he was getting from the two adults when he stood. Pinching his nose Harry breathed deeply in before letting go of the breath. "I saw some weird archway, it was covered by a black cloth, but there were mutterings, as if there was someone hiding on the other side of it." A shudder ran through his body and Harry wrapped an arm around himself, trying to ward off the cold he was feeling.

"Anything else?" The oldest Malfoy pressed on, and Harry shook his head in answer. It was a part of a vision that Harry had had before.

In fact it was connected to the one he had had about his parents' death. Only once had Harry been able to see the whole vision undisturbed, but try as he might to see the whole thing, they only came in small bits from time to another, warning him about what was to come.

And Harry had a brooding feeling that there was nothing he could do to change this vision.

At least he hadn't found the archway so far. And if it wasn't in any of the locations he normally frequented, Harry would be happy to not see more of the world if it meant that he would never get a chance to see it.

But with all the changes that had happened in his life those last few months, Harry felt that it was getting more and more unlikely to avoid the fate he knew was awaiting him.

"No, nothing more." He pressed out, not wanting anyone else to know what would happen to him. He had a feeling that it was not something which could be avoided, though he wasn't sure where that belief came from.

Taking another breath Harry swatted a strange looking beetle away from the table he sat by. Someone really had to update the magic that took care of pests and bugs.

Glancing at the woman, Harry wondered what she was doing there. He could see the logic of letting Lucius stay behind. After all the Malfoy lord had instructions about what to do when Harry had a vision. But she was a stranger.

As if sensing the way his thoughts were heading, the woman sent him a smile which revealed white teeth which Harry knew that no spell could ever help someone to achieve.

"I do not believe that we have been presented. My name is Belladone Zabini, you might know my son, Blaise? It is my understanding that it was your vision which saved my life. I just wanted to thank you." With that the woman leaned forward and kissed his cheeks, her lips lingering for far longer than Harry believed was necessary.

When the woman moved away Harry was sure that his face couldn't possible get any redder. "Eh, that was nothing really." A glare was sent in Lucius' direction as the man produced a sound that sounded rather much like a chuckle. "Can we move on?" Harry asked, desperately for something that would distract him from his embarrassment.

"Of course, if you will both follow yme I believe that we might be able to arrive in time to be able to see Black's sentence being carried out." Lucius spoke in a blank voice. Perhaps it was because his own wife had been a Black before her marriage? If Harry remembered correctly, she was Black's cousin or something like that.

With the way wizards and witches intermarried it was hard to figure out how they were all related to each other.

The whole way to their destination the trio was silent. They had to pass through the journalists whom were waiting right outside the door Harry supposed that the court and Black would be in.

He found himself between the two magical people, shielded from the reporters and their blinding blitzes which sent off as soon as the late trio was spotted.

Both Lord Malfoy and Lady Zabini were visible used to handle the press. None of them let the many questions thrown at them pause or even look in the direction of those who spoke.

Harry almost breathed out in relief when the doors closed behind them, cutting off the sounds from the masses on the other side of it.

Instead he felt his gaze forced to the big archway standing on a dais in the middle of the room, not supported by anything and looking like it could crumble at any time.

"What is that?" Harry asked as he saw Black being led over to the archway by two dementors, possible the same two that had escorted the man into the courtroom.

Harry only half heard the answer when Lucius spoke from his side, his eyes not moving from the archway. "That is the Veil."

**Aridethdar is a great writer**

**Until next time**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

**Before we start I want to make a few things clear about this story.**

**1: James and Lily supported Dumbledore, them dressing up like death eaters has an explanation which will most likely come later.**

**2: And while Sirius Black didn't kill Lady Zabini, he has been a part in killing other purebloods, I was just too lazy to come up with their names and such. **

**3: And about Harry's vision about his parents' deaths? That will be explained later too. If I tried now, I would spoil the story and I have the feeling that some people might be mad at me if I did so.**

**Well, on with the story.**

Distantly Harry was aware that someone was trying to catch his attention, but his eyes and mind wouldn't stray from what he was seeing.

The Dementors were the only things keeping Black on his feet as he stumbling was lead like the lamb to the altar. But if they had not been there, he wouldn't have needed the support in the first place.

As Black was led towards the veil, Harry wondered if the wizard was able to hear the voices. With the distance there was between Harry and the artefact, any sounds coming from it were lost.

The fabric formerly covering the Veil was gone and Harry leaned forward on his toes, he wanted to know if this truly was the archway he had seen in his vision. He could almost feel the thing calling for him, as if there was something waiting for him inside the thing, but at the same time his feet seemed to be rooted to the floor, leaving him unable to move.

The opening was filled with a thick mist like substance. It was constantly moving, making Harry wonder whether there really was something on the other side. A cold shiver ran down his spine as Harry remembered the sensation of baby sized hands grabbing wherever they could, pulling him into the Veil.

Black took the last step on his own, slipping out of the Dementors' hands without a single protest. As the mist closed around him, dragging him in, the wizard turned around so he was facing his small audience.

All too easy Black's eyes found Harry, as if he had known that the minor had been there all the time. The seer found himself unable to let go of Black's gaze. To his surprise Black cracked a smile and saluted to him.

And then he was gone, swallowed by the mist and leaving no trace of his existence behind.

It was so anticlimactic. Where were the explosions? While it had been clear that Dumbledore had given up on Black, the Metamorpmagus hadn't looked like someone who would willingly abandon someone she cared about like that.

But as people moved, stood from their seats and walked out to meet the reporters on the other side of the door, Harry realised that nothing else was going to happen.

His eyes darted around, trying to pick up something that would alert him that something should happen.

He definitely was in the correct room and the Veil was there.

Then why wasn't the rest of his vision happening?

There would be no last minute rescue, since Black had disappeared into the mist and the archway's opening had once again been covered by the light fabric, helping Harry to break free of the trance like fascination he had felt as soon as he had laid his eyes on that thing.

Snapping into attention Harry took a step backwards when he saw someone approach him and had already gotten rather close. His retreat was stopped when Harry's back bumped into someone.

In a move that left him slightly dizzy Harry had turned around so he was facing both males, one arm half raised to protect himself from any incoming attacks.

Mentally Harry swore for getting distracted like that. Especially when he knew what kind of danger the archway presented. At the current moment Harry was split between fight or flight. Both the two wizards standing close to him didn't leave him enough space to do either.

It was almost as if they knew what was going on in his mind.

Lowering his arm Harry looked over to the one he knew would be able to get his wish fulfilled the fastest. "_Get me out of here_." Normally Harry would have scolded himself for showing such a sign of weakness, especially around so many people he neither knew nor trusted.

Instead Harry looked into red eyes, hoping that the man would understand the need he felt to get away from this place. He couldn't lower his Occlumency shields since they were not something Harry had put up on his own.

Harry was aware that they were starting to draw attention as they stood there in the middle of the room, none of them moving.

Luckily the reporters were too far away to hear anything of what was being said, not that they would be able to understand Parseltongue anyway. But they were probably being watched like hawks now where the doors to the outside had been opened.

Voldemort glanced over Harry's shoulder but whatever communication that went on between the two older males, it was non verbal. "_You will stay with Nagini until I return_." After receiving a nod Voldemort tapped his wand against Harry's bracelet and the seer got the feeling that his atoms were being picked apart.

He landed hard on his bum and cursed as he swept to his feet.

His eyes darted around in a moment of wildness before Harry relaxed, recognising the room he had been sent to.

"_Little seer, you're back_!" Scowling at the nickname, Harry did nothing to prevent Nagini from circling around him, nearly making his knee buckle when she dumped her head on his shoulder without warning.

"_Would you stop calling me that_?" All he got for his outburst was a hissing which Harry assumed counted as snickering and a tongue flickering over his ear shell that made him shudder.

"_You are fun. I see why Voldemort wants to keep you_." Harry glanced down at the snake, not bothering with arguing with her. Somehow he had a feeling that it wasn't the deal he had stuck with Voldemort she was speaking about.

But then again, who was he to attempt to understand the mind of a snake?

Any attempt would only worsen his lingering headache, something which Harry held no wish for to happen.

It wasn't like Voldemort could keep him over the time they had agreed on.

Shaking his head to get rid of the confusion, Harry pushed the snake's head away from his shoulder, being much gentler than he felt like.

"_So, Nagini, what do you say about comeing with me_?" He kept his eyes on Nagini as he spoke, feeling like he was about to explode if he stayed inside those four walls.

After all it wasn't like he had been forbidding from walking around Hogwarts, it was his home after all. And as long as he did not leave the wards he would not need the guards which Voldemort had mentioned a few times already.

And he doubted very much that anyone would dare to do him anything as long as he had Nagini with him. The dark lord's familiar was feared which was not surprising since she was known for her deathly poison and liking for human flesh.

Why was it that Voldemort had thought it was smart to order Harry to stay with the snake? If Nagini should decide to attack him for some reason or another, it was not like Harry had any means to defend himself against the big snake.

If he wasn't a Parselmouth, Harry would have been a lot more wary around the big snake. As it was he knew that there were certain spots he could scratch and she would be like melted butter between his hands.

"_What are you waiting for_?" Nagini asked, already at the door which had opened when she had neared it.

Smiling Harry followed her, letting out a breath of relief when the door didn't close right in his face when he attempted to leave. It seemed like whatever spell Voldemort had used to ensure that the room was locked had stopped working. Or perhaps it was because he was accompanying Nagini. The doors were probably charmed to open for the snake whenever she wanted to come or leave.

Harry wondered if it included all the doors in the castle.

He supposed that there was only one way to find out.

Leaving Voldemort's quarters Harry wandered without a particular destination in mind. He knew that he was supposed to be resting, but there were too many thoughts running through his mind for him to find any rest.

With his hands burrowed deep in his robes' pockets, Harry thought back to what had happened.

It had been a while since he had last seen that vision. And to think that he had seen that part the same day as he finally found the Veil.

After first realising what the archway meant, Harry had been looking forward to the day where he would find it. It had helped keeping him sane while the Order's members dosed him with potion after potion to force forth more visions.

It had been his candle light in the dark night. The knowledge that at some point all the suffering he went through would reach an end some day. All he had to do was to wait for the right time to come.

Leaving Voldemort's quarters accompanied by Nagini proved to be a far better idea than Harry had originally believed. Several times he had seen Severus stalk through the corridors, making the students jump out of the way in fear of being the victim of the man's wrath.

Seeing as the same happened now where he had Nagini with him, he somewhat understood why Severus felt the need to stalk through the castle whenever his mood turned sour.

Shaking his head Harry banished thoughts of Severus from his mind. His guardian was due to come back at any time. If not because the giants lived in a remote territory where no form of magical travel worked, Severus would probably have returned already. It was not like Severus hadn't been gone for longer periods of time before, and Harry would have heard it if something had happened to the man.

But as always, when Severus was absent and Harry had nothing to distract himself with, he could not help but feel worried for the man.

Since they were close to lunch Harry found that an annoying high number of students were out on the corridors, leaving him unable to find the peace he needed.

Automatically Harry's feet led him towards the dungeons where he knew that he would get what he carved. The lower levels of Hogwarts belonged to the Slytherins and were commonly known as Severus' hunting grounds.

Occasionally an idiotic Gryffindor would venture into the snake's den to prove their bravery. Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs generally kept their distance to the darker corridors unless it was for the lessons or because they had friends or family members in the house of the snakes.

Unlike Harry, Nagini actually seemed to enjoy the attention they both received. The snake made a big show out of lashing out after someone, only to let her mouth close with a snap a mere inch from someone's leg.

It was amusing and somewhat disturbing to see her play like that but Harry trusted Nagini to not go too far in her game. And since it kept others at a distance he saw no reason to stop her fun.

It was when he reached the dungeon that Harry was face with a hindrance.

A group of students, a mix of Ravenclaws and Slytherins if the colours on their robes were anything to go by, were blocking the corridor. Since they were standing with their backs to him, none of them had noticed the pair's arrival.

Whatever they were doing, they were far enough from the Great Hall that no one would notice them. And a spell had been cast to ensure that no sounds travelled to Harry, leaving him unable to guess what was going on.

Already resigned to have to take another route since he didn't want to take part in whatever was going on, Harry started turning around. While he had thought that his presence went unnoticed Harry caught sight of slightly wet brown eyes over one of the wizard's shoulders.

There was a fire in those eyes and as he took a step towards the group Harry cursed himself for not being able to simply walk away from the scene.

Five strides brought Harry closer to the group and through whatever magic that had been used to keep any sound from alerting bypassers of what was going on.

"Not so high and mighty are you now, mudblood?" The insult was spit out as if Zacharias Smith, the seemingly only Hufflepuff in the group, had something rotten in his mouth. "Tarantella!" The witch drove to the side and bumped against the wall, leaving her unable to move further unless she wanted to bring herself closer to her attackers.

"It is against the rules for students to use magic out of the classroom." The witch said, sounding like she was citing something from a book.

"Shut it mudblood. If you go to the professors, who do you think that they will believe? Us, or someone who thinks she is something because she happens to be able to read a book?" Someone spoke.

"No, but they might believe him." Harry felt like a deer caught in the headlight. While the wands stayed trailed on the witch in case that she was trying to trick them, Harry found most of them looking at him, probably wondering where he had popped up from.

Though he was uncomfortable with the hostile attention Harry decided that there was no retreat. Not after he had been outed like that. But it helped shrinking his want to help the witch considerably. "You are blocking the hallway." He said, hoping that it would be a good enough explanation to what he was doing there.

Recognition lit in the Slytherins' eyes and they had lowered their wands seeing him. Seeing how many times Harry had already been in their common room with Draco, it was no surprise that they would be able to remember him upon sight.

Hopefully it meant that he wouldn't have to deal with troubles from that part of the group.

As Smith broke off from the group with a step in his direction, Harry knew that luck was not on his side today. "Don't tell that you are a mudblood lover." The question made Harry's eyes flicker over to the witch. He wanted to get back on her for dragging him into this mess even though he had planned on helping her. But that would have to wait until he was done here.

With a signal with his hand Harry hoped that Nagini understood that she was to stay in the background as Smith stepped up in front of him. They were of similar height, so Harry didn't have to crane his neck back to look at the Hufflepuff. But Smith was broader than him though it seemed to be more fat rather than muscles.

Not wanting to give him a reason to attack, Harry kept his hands open by his sides, his palms facing the others so they could see that he was empty handed. "Honestly no, but I care even less about bullies and to me it seems like that is all you are." Harry drawled in his best initiation of Draco. Though he hadn't been looking for troubles it didn't mean that he wanted to appear like an easy prey to those people.

Harry stood unmoving as Smith's gaze wandered over him, giving the other time to make a judgement of him. "You are not a student."

Raising an eyebrow Harry wondered how he was meant to react to that statement.

"Brilliant deduction, Sherlock." Other than the slight widening of eyes of the witch who was the reason to why he was in this mess the first time, no one seemed to get the reference. "The name is Harry Potter."

Out of the corner of his eye Harry caught sight of some with green ties slowly sneaking off. He paid them no more attention as what he had decided was currently the biggest threat was right in front of him.

"The squib." He scowled at Smith's tone. With just two words Smith had made it clear what he thought of Harry.

"Actually, it's Lord Potter to you. But I understand if it's too complicated for you. After all, Smith is not exactly a pureblood name, at least not an old one." While speaking Harry wondered what was wrong with him. While he had planned to intervene he hadn't meant to direct the bully's anger towards him.

When the attack came, Harry was not prepared. He had known that this one wouldn't need much of a push to react. But when Smith attacked him physically instead of using his wand, Harry guessed that his remark about not being a pureblood had hit closer home than he had thought that it would.

The right hook hit him straight in the jaw, forcing Harry's head to the side and sent him stumbling a few steps backwards.

Quickly Harry straightened and glared at Smith. "Is that really all you can do? I guess that all that wand waving must have made you lax." There was no pain, not yet. But Harry knew that it would come once his adrenaline level had gotten down to a more normal level.

When Smith went for him again, Harry leaned backwards, enough so the fist hit empty air instead of him. Before the appendage cold retreat, Harry grabbed him around the wrist and pulled him downwards, managing to yank him out of balance.

With his weight and with the help of surprise, Harry sent the both of them to the floor with a thud.

They rolled around on the ground, wrestling while trying to gain the upper hand.

One of Smith's wild swings hit Harry nearly at the same spot the wizard had previously hurt. With that move Harry managed to free his left arm and hit him in the middle of the face, breaking Smith's nose if the sound was anything to go by.

The air was knocked out of Harry's lungs when he ended under Smith, a knee digging into his chest and stopping him from getting his breath back.

"You are pathetic. Honestly, why people believe any shit from you, I don't know. Or perhaps it is just an excuse that is used to keep you around. My Uncle told me that there is only one use for squibs. Is that how you got Snape to keep you for so long? And now where he has grown tired of you, you have decided to find a new bed to warm?"

Cold fury filled Harry at Smith's words. Bucking up Harry didn't manage to dislodge Smith from his body.

Lifting his legs and wrapping them around Smith Harry would have laughed if not because his thigh had started to protest. Instead he forced his legs back in a horizontal position, throwing Smith off of him.

Quickly Harry following, landing on top of Smith in a crouched position. His hands hit wherever they could reach, doing their best to do as much damage to Smith as possible.

Smith had gotten a rather dazed look in his eyes by the time Harry was pulled away from him. Trashing in the hold Nagini had him in, Harry scowled at Smith, who was being helped back on his feet by two of his peers. The rest had shambled away, probably scared off by Nagini, which explained why no one had intervened with the fight. "_Get back here and let me finish you! You'll regret what you said! By the time I'm done you'll have a face that not even your own mother can love_!" He yelled.

Try as he might Harry could not get free and he had to watch as they hurried off, encouraged by Nagini's hissed threats which mixed with Harry's own.

As they turned around a corner and went out of view, Harry slumped together in Nagini's hold, feeling his anger slowly seep out of him. "Being a Parseltongue is a Slytherin family trait, the books about how purebloods are related to each other, never showed any marriage between a descendant of Slytherin and someone from the Potter family. And since your mother was a muggleborn it cannot possible have come from her." Snapping back to attention at the comment Harry realised that they were not as alone as he first had thought.

"What are you doing here?" Harry snapped, not really interested in what she might answer but simply wanting to be alone so he would be able to think.

Harry got on his feet with Nagini still wrapped around him, though a great part of the snake was still on the floor. He had seen Voldemort carry Nagini around like this so it should be possible for him to have her draped over him.

The first few steps were more of a stumble than an actually walk. But after rearranging the way Nagini hung over him, Harry found it much easier to move around without risking falling.

Seeing that there was nothing more for him to do, Harry continued in his originally intended direction.

But it seemed like the witch was having other plans.

She had reached out for him, probably to stop him from walking around her, when Nagini's mouth closed so close to her hand that Harry actually thoughts that she had been bitten. Seeing the wand having appeared in her hand Harry glowered at the girl. "You're really stupid if you do anything to her. Nagini is Voldemort's familiar and if anything is done to her, he'll want retribution."

The impact of his words made her pale as she moved her hand out of reach, but a determined fire had entered her brown eyes.

"It is proper protocol to label people by their title when speaking about them, especially when they are above one's own standing. And you have to let me escort you to the Hospital Wing so someone can look at you. You broke several rules by fighting with a student, even if it was without a wand." Harry, who had started walking away in the middle of her rant, didn't bother to hide his annoyance as she followed after him. "You risk losing house points, getting detentions, and if you keep getting into fights you will end getting expelled from Hogwarts."

The vision he'd had, seeing the veil in real life, getting in a fight he hadn't wanted to and the throbbing of his leg made Harry turn around to meet her with a glare. "Would you bloody hell just shut up for one moment?!" When she opened her mouth Harry hissed at her, before carrying on, knowing if he let her get started again, he wouldn't be able to stop her.

"It was you and your big mouth that got me into that mess in the first place! They wouldn't have noticed me if you hadn't ratted me out like that! It is no wonder that people pick on you when you act like a bloody Know It All. I'm not a student so they can't give me detention, take points or expel me! I saved your hide, but do I get as much as a 'thank you' or a 'are you okay'? No! So better not count on my help the next time you are in trouble. Now, stop following, as, unlike someone else, I actually have better things to do than waste my time on you!"

"_Should I bite her, little seer_?" Nagini's question broke Harry off much sooner than he had wanted to.

The witch had tears in her eyes, but Harry opted for focussing on Nagini. "_Not this time, besides I doubt that she would taste any good. But I'll take you somewhere I know it will be peaceful_." To the witch he said. "If you follow, I might just let Nagini have a bite. She is complaining about feeling hungry."

Not bothering to wait for a reaction Harry stalked his way down the corridor, not wanting to do or say something which could have consequences for him later on.

If the witch knew what was best for her, she would take his advise and leave them alone.

By the time Harry reached the laboratory both his thigh and jaw were throbbing with pain. He didn't need to look in a mirror to know that he was a mess, as Nagini had already been so kind to inform him of this. His braid was messed up and Harry was still honestly surprised that Smith hadn't attempted to use the long hair to his advantage during the fight.

His mood was worsened by the fact that the witch hadn't left him. Instead she had moved on to other subjects she apparently believed that he needed to be lectured about. "If you think I'm rude, then what about yourself? You haven't thanked us, though if it wasn't for me and Nagini you would probably be in the Hospital Wing right now. And I still don't know your name." Not that he cared about it, but perhaps it would help to shut her up and get a hint.

"I am Hermione Granger, seventh year Gryffindor. And it is proper gramma to say Nagini and I." If more was said, Harry heard nothing of it as he slammed the door close, after ensuring that Nagini wouldn't be caught in it. Thanks to the charms on the door, Harry was engulfed in a blessed silence.

At least until Nagini decided to break it. "_What a rude hatchling. I should bite her just to teach her a lesson. Then she wouldn't think about bothering me again. But she wouldn't taste good, too much hair_." The last part was added after a short hesitation, almost like an afterthought.

Scratching Nagini on top of the head, Harry didn't bother to comment. In his opinion it tasted disgustingly whenever he had bit someone, but then again, Nagini was used to eat raw meat.

Instead he went for a cabinet in the corner of the room. It sprang open on its own when he neared it, revealing different kind of potions stocked up inside it. Finding a pain reliever, Harry uncorked it and drowned it in one go. Gagging at the aftertaste in his mouth, he placed the empty vial aside, scowling when his eyes landed on an empty part of the cabin's shelves. "Figure that we would be out of bruise salve when I need it." He mumbled while absently rubbing his jaw.

Though the potion had already started helping with the pain, Harry wanted the physical evidences gone. He already knew that none of the purebloods would breathe a word about what happened. Smith would be too ashamed of having been beaten by a squib and make sure that the others kept quiet.

Nagini could probably be silenced with the promise of fresh rabbits. Harry would deal with the problem of getting those on a later time.

It was the muggleborn, Granger, who could prove to be a problem. After all she had every reason to go rattle to a prefect or a professor about what had happened. But whether she would do so or not was the real question. If she did, Harry was not sure what would happen, but he knew that one version or another of what had happened would reach Voldemort's ears.

But all that would matter nothing if he could not find something to do about the bruise he knew was already there.

Nagini had already unwrapped herself from Harry to explore the room. Harry let her, knowing that this gave him peace to work. "_If you want to sleep, there is a warm spot between the two closets over there_." After that none for them spoke for a long while, keeping themselves occupied with their own thing.

**)00(**

Tilting the cauldron Harry watched as the mixture slowly dripped down in its container. This work had to be done while the potion was still smoking hot. Once it started to cool down it would stiffen and could be applied as a cream. By then it would be impossible to transfer it from one container to another without wasting a big deal of it.

Once the last drop was in its container Harry lifted the heavy cauldron back to its place and placed the container on line with the four others he had already filled. None of them were closed since air was needed for them to harden correctly.

Harry eyed the already half stiff cream. He was well aware of the fact that he was in a hurry. But applying the cream before it was ready to be used would only give him half the result he wished for.

Glancing at Nagini Harry was satisfied to see that she was sleeping instead of getting into troubles. Other than a few comments from her, Harry had hardly noticed her presence. But he frowned when he realised that she was not lying at one of the few warm spots Harry had pointed out to her. Severus had made sure that some spots in the laboratory were warmer than the rest of the room, as long as the warmth didn't intervene with anything they were brewing.

Since snakes were cold blooded, she needed other sources to get warmth from and yet Nagini looked like she couldn't get more comfortable than she currently was.

Almost as if someone had read his thoughts a wand dug into the joint point between his shoulder and neck, warning him against moving. "Are you completely incapable of following any orders given to you?"

Harry tilted his head slightly in submission, knowing that now was not the best time for him to act cocky. "Actually, you said that I should stay with Nagini, which I did."

A hand seized his arm and Harry found himself turned around so he was facing Voldemort. At the same time he tilted his head in another winkle, hoping that the shadows would be able to hide the bruises. He hadn't bothered to light the room more than necessary, knowing that something like this could happen.

Hopefully Voldemort would see the move as shame.

Harry winced when fingers closed around his chin, almost as if Voldemort had known that the bruise was there and was letting Harry know that he knew. The pain reliever must have worn off while he had been brewing. Harry hadn't dared to take a stronger one, knowing that it would affect his work. Severus would have a fit if he had known that Harry had brewed while being under the influence of a pain reliever, no matter how weak that one had been.

His head was guided into a winkle where Harry knew that no shadows would be able to hide the result of the fight from Voldemort. Harry watched how Voldemort's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, the only sign of the anger the man seemed to feel. "_What happened_?"

Harry, who had to stand on the tip of his toes because of the way his head was being held, returned Voldemort's glare with one of his own. "_He looked worse than me once we were done_." No matter how angry and disgusted Harry might be with Smith, he wasn't about to hand him over to Voldemort. Or perhaps he would, but at the moment Harry didn't feel like finding a silver plate to serve the head on.

He struggled to contain a flinch when Voldemort ran a finger around what Harry figured was the bruise's shape. The touch was gentle and leaked no hint of what was going on inside Voldemort's head.

"_Sit down_." Harry found himself pushed down on one of the few chairs which were in the laboratory. Without further words Voldemort went to the working desk, looking the salves over.

It didn't take a genius to figure out how Voldemort had tracked him down. After all, he was still wearing the bracelet around his wrist. But since Voldemort had not shown up in the middle of the fight, Harry hoped that he had not known about it.

But chances were bigger that Voldemort had merely been in the middle of something which he had been unable to leave at that time.

Harry felt strangely warm when Voldemort returned with the container Harry had finished filling first. Scoping up a generous amount Voldemort spread the cream over the bruise. Harry grimaced at the sour odour. Unless there was a specific reason to it, Severus refused to attempt changing either the smell or the taste of his work, which meant that neither did Harry. Too often it had a negative effect on the finished product, or it was just plain impossible.

As his whole chin started to feel pleasantly numb, Harry found that he really couldn't care less.

Half of the contets was used before Voldemort placed the container back with the others. During the whole process there hadn't been an exchange of words, but Harry knew that it would not last.

"_What was your vision about_?" Voldemort asked, surprising Harry when the seer knew that he was not supposed to. Calmly he gave the same version that he had given to Lucius, not wanting to reveal more than absolutely necessary to Voldemort, but it should be enough to satisfy the man.

"_I just had to get out of there. I couldn't be close to that thing after seeing how it feels to be pulled through it_." Harry said, hoping that Voldemort would simply accept the answer.

"_How much did you see after he passed through_?"

"_Mist, and then the vision ended_." Technically he hadn't lied. After all, it wasn't his fault that Voldemort decided that it was from Sirius' point of view that he had seen the vision. He saw no reason to correct the man.

It wasn't a lie, but neither was it the whole truth. Harry waited with baited breath until Voldemort seemed to accept his words with a small nod. But Harry did not get to celebrate his small victory for long as Voldemort carried on to the next subject. "_And what caused this damage_?"

"_I don't see how it is important_."

Harry hissed softly as something cold wrapped around his person and tighten in warning. It took him a few second to realise that what he felt was Voldemort's magic. All the while Voldemort kept his face free of any emotions. "_Do not mistake, little seer. Until January the sixteenth, you are in my service which means that you belong to me. Anyone who dares to lay a hand on you, is indirectly doing it to me as well. So spare me from your Gryffindorness and tell me who is responsible for this_."

Harry attempted to get up from the chair, only to be pushed straight back into it. The hand stayed sprawled out on his chest, stopping him from doing any further attempts. "_No one owns me, Voldemort. And if you think you do, then you are just as bad as Dumbledore_!" When dark clouds assembled in Voldemort's eyes, Harry knew that he had gone too far. Awaiting a response from Voldemort, it being physical or with a curse, Harry sat tense, barely daring to breathe.

"_Kiss and make up. I want to sleep and as long as you two are yelling like this, I can't_!" Hissed Nagini, looking pointedly at the duo before she laid her head back on the floor and closed her eyes.

Harry stared at Nagini in small wonder, seeing that the snake had already gone back to sleep. She had said her piece and apparently she expected that it would settle it.

When Harry turned back to argue further with Voldemort, Harry found the other's face unnaturally close to his own. "_What are you doing_?" Harry refused to call it a squeak. His voice just hadn't finished going in transition. That was all there was to it.

He leaned back in the chair, but Voldemort followed and Harry found himself being more trapped than he had been before. "_Stop it! Haven't you ever heard of personal space_?" He finally snapped, deciding to push Voldemort away by placing a hand on Voldemort's shoulder.

Suddenly Harry found both hands pinned in his lap by the one that was not on his chest. When he attempted to tug them free, they didn't bulge.

The other hand had reached up and was cupping Harry's face, almost lovingly. Without words Harry jerked his face free, and leaned fully back against the chair's back. Then Voldemort's hand gripped Harry's jaw, holding it in place. "_Don't be so difficult, you have already proved, that you enjoy this_."

A finger brushed over Harry's bottom lip, making the boy shiver and whine in the back of his throat. Voldemort was leaning down over him, filling out Harry's view.

Then suddenly Harry found a hand in his braid, holding him in place as a warm mouth descended, kissing and teasing Harry tightly clamped lips, trying to make him relax. Harry managed to shake his head, feeling a few stands loose, but it was not enough to dislocate Voldemort from him.

Voldemort's mouth moved down his neck, finding a sensitive spot and Harry was unable to suppress a shiver. When Voldemort's tongue flickered over the spot in the same manner a cat would lick milk, Harry had to admit that it felt amazing.

His breath started to speed, and on his body's own accord Harry found himself arching his neck to the mouth attacking it.

When Voldemort bit down on the same spot he had left a mark last time, Harry's eyes closed and he bit back a moan as he felt himself hardening slightly in his pants.

Distantly Harry was aware that his hands were no longer pinned down and yet he didn't seem to be able to move them, or perhaps it was simply because he lacked the desire.

Something pressed against his cock and the pleasure made it unable for him to not respond to the lips on his, kissing the older male back. Voldemort hummed pleased against his mouth and a tongue darted out, trying to gain entrance.

Harry clamped his lips together, refusing it.

Feeling a hand run over his cock, though through his pants, Harry gasped, unwilling giving Voldemort's tongue permission to penetrate his mouth.

Clenching his eyes closed Harry whimpered into the kiss, trying to squirm away. Voldemort was having none of that, placing one hand in Harry's hair while the other continued rubbing over his cock.

Harry found himself moving against the hand on his groin, feeling like his nerves were on fire. He gave into the kiss, stopping fighting against the tongue still inside his mouth.

When Voldemort broke off the kiss and drew back he paused to admire the result of his work. Harry's lips were swollen and bloodied after the kiss. The braid was mostly undone and the slightly dazed look in the half lid eyes left Voldemort with no doubt what level of a kisser he was.

The mark he had left only yesterday was still visible above the collar of Harry's robe. It stood out against Harry's pale skin, leaving no doubt with anyone who saw this that he had been claimed.

The seer whimpered slightly, as a shudder ran through his body. A damp mark had formed on the front of his robes when Harry became undone.

Now he sat slumped in the chair, no longer attempting to get out of it, and almost looked like he was about to fall asleep where he was.

When the red eyes focused on the bruise, still visible under the thick layer of cream he'd smeared out on the check, they darkened. "_Bottle up your work, unless you want them to get spoiled. Then follow Nagini back to my quarters_."

The seer nodded, though Voldemort was not certain if his words had been registered or if Harry was simply reacting at the sound of his voice. No matter what Voldemort knew that Nagini would not mess up this job.

Afterwards he would have a talk with his snake about why one was not supposed to take seers out for a walk.

"_You don't have to tell me, who did this to you, there are plenty of other methods for me to use, and don't worry, no matter what, I will find the one responsible for this_." With that Voldemort turned and left, intending to locate the nearest portrait and then work his way from there until he had the answer he wanted.

It seemed like people did not understand that they would not touch what was his.

That was fine. Voldemort intended to remind them until the message was forever imprinted on the backside of their eyeballs.

**Well, I never said that Harry's visions would happen right away. So now you can all wait and get angsty for when, how and if Harry will end in the Veil. **

**Question, is Harry and Voldemort's relationship moving too fast and do you readers have any suggestions to how I can make them get closer? **

**Recommended:**

**The Truth of Blood by Rokkis**

**The needs of the many by Rokkis**

**Until next time**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

**Warning: Talk about torture**

After Voldemort had left, Harry went on with his task. The seer grimaced at the sticky feeling in his trousers, wishing that Voldemort had used magic to at least vanish the proof of what had happened before the man had simply left.

The containers were closed and put on the correct shelf, ready for the next time that someone would need them.

Leaving the laboratory and closing the door behind him, Harry walked the way back to Voldemort's quarters. Every move he made was automatic and Harry was only dimly aware that Nagaini was following him, probably concerned about his sudden silence.

Still Harry had had sense enough to wrap the Invisiility cloak around him before he had departed from the laboratory. He didn't want to think about what kind of rumours it would have started if someone noticed the splotch on the front of his pants.

Smith's accusations rung in his ears, like a broken record that could only play the same few sentences and again.

He knew that the accusations, or at least part of them, were false. Severus had never used him in the way Smith had more than hinted at. Harry was pretty sure that Severus still viewed him as the kid the Potions master had stumbled over that night so many years ago. Harry could not even start imagining his caretaker in another way than he already did.

Severus was the closest thing to a father he had and Harry had no plans to change that.

While he and Severus had a parental relationship, the same couldn't be said about whatever was going on between him and Voldemort.

Harry wasn't sure what was going on between them, if there was anything at all. After all, Voldemort was a confusing person. For the man this could just be a game, and Harry wasn't willing to let himself getting burnt because he allowed himself to believe something else.

When he'd first made the deal with Voldemort, Harry had thought that his life would carry on like normal, only with a few more people knowing about his strange ability.

He'd certainly not expected Voldemort to take such an interest in him and to start kissing him out of the blue.

Harry's fingers brushed over his lips and a blush coloured his face, thankfully unseen by the few students he passed on their way. Those few times Harry had entertained the thought of kissing someone he'd always conjured the image of him kissing some faceless girl.

It had always felt so awkward that Harry had ended with writing himself off as asexual.

But evidences now proved that he might have been focussing on the wrong gender.

Mulling over this Harry felt split about what he was supposed to feel about this whole thing.

Since his feeling were such a mess Harry decided to try and look at things from a more logical side, something that Severus had often urged him to do.

He needed to know why Voldemort had kissed him. Had it been something akin to a fluke or had there been a reason behind it?

From the Daily Prophet and general gossip he had happened to stumble upon Harry knew that Voldemort'd had his fair share of lovers, though they didn't seem to become more than that.

In a society where most purebloods were betrothed from birth, it said a lot about the man that he'd not yet entered a marriage contract despite his numerous affairs.

So either Voldemort bribed those he allowed to share his bed with, or no one had anything to complain about, and those numerous rumours circulating were simply started by people who had nothing better to do with their lives.

A feeling told Harry that it was a combination of those two.

So it wasn't like Voldemort lacked of people who were willing to let him shag them. Most would probably feel honoured to have the dark lord to take an interest in them. Either that or they would be scared to death.

Harry was neither. Other than when Draco had been harmed, Harry had not felt fear. And at that time it had been for his friend and had mostly been outweighed by anger, so Harry supposed that it didn't really count.

And his life had been much simpler before Voldemort became aware of his existence, so Harry didn't feel gratitude.

Realising that this was doing nothing to help him, Harry groaned, making a nearby portrait jump in surprise, and yell at whoever was there to reveal themselves. Harry didn't pay the old wizard any attention.

All he seemed to get out of all this thinking was a headache and the urge to bang his head into a wall until he could somehow convince himself that this was all just a dream.

He needed to know about Voldemort. It was just like when Severus decided to let him work on a new potion. There was research that needed to be done before he could start on the actual work.

Unfortunately, Harry doubted that the library would have a book with the information that he needed.

So he would do this the old way. Watch Voldemort until he had what he wanted. Considering that the man seemed to want to keep him close anyway, Harry guessed that his mission would be easier than he could have feared.

In time Harry was sure that his questions would be answered.

But first, he needed a bath and a change of clothes. His brain still refused to cooperate with the fact that Voldemort had managed to get him off while they had kissed.

**)00(**

Someone was already there when Harry and Nagini arrived. The seer wanted to stop and back out, but Nagini used her tail to force him forward, making him stumble and then stop to make sure that the cloak was still covering him perfectly.

He stared at the person sitting on a small sofa near the window that gave a good view over the Forbidden Forest.

Narcissa Malfoy was paying the view no attention. The moment the door opened she had looked at them, though Harry was sure that he was not visible, thanks to the cloak he was currently wearing.

To his surprise the witch actually bowed her head to Nagini, showing respect to the Dark Lord's familiar.

The snake flickered her tongue in the direction of the witch but otherwise ignored her as she slithered to the door Harry knew led to Voldemort's room. Since the door had already closed behind him and Harry had no wish about letting Draco's mother see him in his current state Harry obediently followed Nagini into the bedroom.

Once out of view from Lady Malfoy Harry let his cloak drop. Folding it he took it under his arm, looking around the room.

The clothes he was currently wearing had been provided by houseelves. At least that was what Harry assumed. It had been there this morning when he awoke, needing to be dressed. But all his other clothes were still back in his room.

"_This way, little seer_." Harry saw Nagini disappear through a door by the side of the big bed, which he was sure had not been there this morning.

Seeing as he would need Nagini's help if he should sneak out of here without the witch outside noticing it, Harry followed after the snake, wondering where he was being led to.

Just inside the room Harry stopped, his green eyes widening slightly. The room was done in cream colours with dark wood panels and floor.

It wasn't a too big room, at the end was a large window that was framed by dark and heavy curtains, that reached the floor. A wooden desk was placed in front of the window, letting the chair's back face the rest of the room. On the top of the desk were parchment and quills, ready for use in case one would want to do so.

Books of different kinds, mostly potions and luckily none of those schoolbooks he had seen the students here browse through.

In the far corner of the room the bed stood. It was a comfortable double bed. Harry knew, that if he laid there he wouldn't feel like there was too much space around him, such as it had felt the few moments he had lain in Voldemort's bed alone.

In the opposite corner to the bed, a worn armchair stood. It was big enough to curl up in and with a quilt thrown over its back.

Otherwise the room was quite bare, missing any proofs that someone was living in there. Besides, who would Voldemort possible allow to share his living space with? Other than him, Harry realised. But he pushed the thought aside as soon as it had appeared. He would return to his own room as soon as Severus was back, if not sooner.

There was no reason to look into this, it was probably only because Voldemort wanted to have his bed back again, despite how comfortable the couch had looked, Harry doubted that anyone would want to sleep there for long amounts of time.

Harry wandered over to a cabinet, opening it. His head tilted slightly to the side as he saw every piece of clothes he which knew were his own being in there, ready to be taken out and used.

The thought of someone having been in his room and rummaging through his belongings made the seer's temper rise, but he quickly stomped it down for now. At least it meant that he wouldn't have to wear the soiled clothes any longer.

After making sure that Nagini was not peeking, though the snake didn't saw the sense in it, Harry changed into new clothes, dropping the used robes and trousers in a laundry basket from where it disappeared right away.

Sometimes he simply loved magic.

Returning to the sitting room, with his Invisible cloak pocketed in case he would need it, Harry found that the witch had not moved from the couch.

She looked up when the door to Voldemort's room opened, and Harry was sure that he saw surprise on her face before the emotion was gone, too fast for him to actually be sure about what he had seen.

Swiftly Harry bowed to the woman, silently wondering what she was doing here. After what had happened to Draco she wasn't exactly a person he had expected to see anytime soon. "Lady Malfoy, to what do I owe the honour?"

"Lord Potter, please call me Narcissa. After all, you are a friend of my son." The smile directed at him surprised Harry. After yesterday's happenings he hadn't expected the woman to treat him with any warmth.

Warily Harry nodded before sitting down in a lovechair, not taking his eyes off the witch the whole time. "Harry then. Is Draco okay?" Perhaps it hadn't been the best idea to ask Draco's mother such a question when Harry knew that it had been his fault that the blond had been hurt in the first place. At the same time he knew that because of her medical knowledge she would be one of the best to tell him how Draco was doing. After all, Voldemort had showed no sign of allowing Harry to get close to Draco again and he wanted to know how bad his friend was off.

But her smile stayed in place despite his rather blunt question. "Draco is already back in his classes though I would have liked him to stay in bed for a few more days." Wincing Harry shifted uncomfortably. The Cruciatus was painful no matter what. But he imagined that one from Voldemort must have been especially bad. "Of course that is the mother in me. Professionally speaking I know that my son is fine, thanks to a good night's rest and potions from Severus' personal supply." She said, lifting a tea cup to her lips and taking a sip.

Again Harry merely nodded. He knew that Severus' potions were infallible. Having brewed for the man for years, he knew that Severus accepted nothing but the best to be used by other people.

To know that Draco was physically unaffected of what had happened yesterday was a relief to hear. It felt like a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders. But the next time he saw Draco, Harry would make sure to apologise for what had happened.

When Narcissa Malfoy's eyes looked directly at him, Harry felt like a deer caught in the head light. "Now, young man. I do believe that you were ordered bedrest. When the Dark Lord said that you would be accompanying him today, I believed that he would know better than to let you run around without a thought of that it might undo the work I did."

Through the witch's berating Harry was thankful that she knew nothing about the fight he had been involved in. He liked living, thank you very much.

"Now, take your clothes off and lay down." Blinking Harry realised that he should have paid more attention to what was going on. Already Narcissa had stood, her wand in hand and looking at him.

Harry fought down the urge to blush. He knew she was speaking to him as a mediwitch, but he would have preferred it if she had said it in another way. "Do I have to?"

The witch raised her eyebrow together with her wand. Before Harry could even think of reacting, he found himself dressed in only his briefs. His face red of embarrassment, Harry's hands covered his front while he glared at the woman whom seemed completely unfazed by his sudden state of undress.

Considering that she had already treated him once, it was understandable.

His glare changed to a more uncomfortable look when he noticed the way she was eyeing the scars decorating his body. She was doing it discretely, but Harry just knew that she was wondering what kind of story was behind them.

But no matter how much he looked, there was no pity to spot in her eyes, much to Harry's own relief. Many of the scars had faded a great deal over the years, but he guessed that they were still visible to the trained eye or those who knew that the scars were there.

Wanting to get over with this so he would be able to get his clothes back on, Harry laid down on the sofa Narcissa had abandoned. It was long enough for him to lay outstretched without brushing against the armrests.

Turning his head slightly Harry looked at Narcissa, waiting for her to get started on her work.

The witch's face was bared of emotions as her wand travelled over his leg, vanishing the bandage around his thigh.

Harry kept still when she leaned close, inspecting the already healed wound closely. "It seems to have healed nicely." She admitted after long minutes of silence, almost unwilling. "But you need to be more careful. Despite being healed, the tissue is still new and too much running around can put you back."

Harry nodded, happy when the woman stepped away from him and giving him a little breathing space.

"Now tell me why you have gotten bruise balsam on your check and why there is blood on your knuckles." Harry's eyes darted to the roof, asking the gods to give him luck.

**)00(**

Not long after his departure, Voldemort found himself standing in front of the closed door leading to the Hospital Wing. By now he had his anger under tight reins. It was waiting to be unlashed once he found the one who had dared to lay a hand on what was his.

The portraits had been of great help to get him this far. Perhaps they had sensed that their continual existence depended on how much of his time he'd have to waste on them. Thus the whole process had run a lot smoother than Voldemort first had appreciated and he now had a list of people who had most likely been involved in the whole ordeal.

Without further delay Voldemort made the door open with a swipe with his hand. It was done far gentler than he had originally intended. But if someone was being treated in there it could have grave consequences if he startled anyone.

The Hospital Wing was rather crowded, though only one bed was occupied. The rest of the students seemed to be crowding around one bed where a male Hufflepuff student lay, popped up against a few white pillows. Whatever he had been suffering from, had already been taken care of, seeing as the Healer was no longer in the room.

Voldemort remained near the door, simply looking at the young people. They were discussing among themselves, apparently disagreeing about something by the looks of it. Someone must have had sense enough to cast a silencing charm since not a single word of their conversation carried over to him. It only helped to convince Voldemort that he had located the correct people.

Long moments passed before Voldemort's presence was noticed. The silencing charm was taken down immediately and a hush fell over the group as they all stared at him.

These children had grown up in the Wizarding world and had gotten stories about him in from their infancies.

Ever so slowly Voldemort let his gaze wander over them, staring them into silent submission though it wasn't necessary. Not one of them dared to meet his gaze for more than a few seconds.

"You lot are students of Hogwarts, the future of our world." He spoke slowly, adding a slight hiss to his words for effect. It helped making sure that he had their full attention. "And yet, looking at you, I cannot help but feel disappointed in what years of grooming and careful education has to offer the world we live in."

Satisfied he waited as they tensed, one after one realising that it was not by chance that he was there. Maybe they feared what he would do if one of them dared to speak up since none of them had attempted to interrupt him.

He stepped forward until he was in the middle of the room, staring down at them along his nose. They were like rabbits facing a predator. None of them dared to breathe too loud in case that it would bring his attention to them.

"I am sure." He started, as if not affected by the heavy silence in the room. "That you have all heard by now that a seer has been discovered. That person is under my protection and anything that happens to him, is seen as an offence against my person." How he enjoyed to watch them squirm under his gaze. The last time he'd allowed himself to have a little fun it had ended in the Dursley couple's death, which reminded him that there were still two from that line he needed to take care of in the near future.

"Imagine my surprise when I saw him not even fifteen minutes ago, bruised and with blood that was not his own on his hands." Understanding seemed to draw for his listeners. Hogwarts housed over hundreds of students and yet physical fighting was something that rarely happened. People favoured their wands instead of jumping each other like barbarians. With Harry being who he was, Voldemort found it easy to excuse the teen for his actions. It would have done more harm than good for Harry to attempt to use a wand to defend himself.

"Two hundred points from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff for not stopping the fight and detention to you with Potions master Snape when he returns. After all, it was his assistant you let get attacked." When unhappy grumbling sounded Voldemort merely raised a dark eyebrow, effectively cutting them off.

"Now, which one of you dared to attack Lord Potter?" Since only one of those in the Hospital Wing bore signs of having been hurt, he already had his answer. But Voldemort wanted to see if anyone else was to take a share of the blame.

"It was Smith, sir. He attacked the squ- your seer." A small Ravenclaw piped up from the safety in the back of the group. He would probably have said more but his sideman elbowed him in the gut, effectively silencing the telltale.

Apparently loyalty between friends didn't mean everything to all. Or perhaps the boy had enough sense to try and save his own skin. "Smith will stay, the rest of you will leave right now!"

The order was followed immediately and Voldemort waited until the last brat had left before the door closed and locked with a foreboding click. Smith, the boy who still lay in the bed, was left behind, looking disturbingly close to be sick and Voldemort knew that it had nothing to do with the blood the boy had lost.

"Get up!" Voldemort ordered coldly, knowing that the healer would not be alerted thanks to the wards he had already snapped in place to ensure that no one would be able to interrupt.

Shakily Smith did as told. The student crawled out of the bed and stood in front of him, looking about ready to urinate himself. His gaze was directed at the floor and Smith was breathing so fast that he was on the boarder to hyperventilate. He was still dressed in his Hogwarts uniform and there were small cakes of blood on his otherwise white shirt.

"Zacharias Smith, sixth year Hufflepuff and a halfblood with a muggle father. You are a mediocre student, but congratulation, despite all the fact speaking against you, you have managed to catch my interest." He said with a shark like smirk. "Now I have to decide what to do with you since your latest actions means that your existence can no longer be ignored."

Startled the boy looked up and as soon as eye contact was established, Voldemort dove into the boy's mind to find the memory of the recent events.

After viewing the fight and what had lead up to it, Voldemort pulled out of the other's mind. Mentally he subtracted two hundred points from the house of snakes and they would also serve detention once Severus had returned. While they had not stayed or harmed Harry, like the Ravenclaws they had done nothing to aid the seer.

Smith sunk down on his knees and was clutching his head with both of his hands. No doubt that the boy was having a killer headache, but Voldemort could not find it in himself to feel for Smith. "Not only have you attacked my seer, but you also insulted my Potions master and me. Tell me, Mr. Smith, do I look like someone who will accept other's used things?"

Seeing the memory had filled him with mixed emotions. The way Harry had acted pleased him. It proved that the seer was able to defend himself when it was necessary, something he had been rather worried about after the Pettigrew incident. But the fact that Harry had become engaged because of a mudblood was something he could have done without.

Narrowing his eyes Voldemort glanced down at the wizard at his feet. "There is a wide breadth of things I could do to you, Mr. Smith, and no one would protest once they learned my reasons." He did intend for the information to spread once he was done with Smith. It would serve to remind people that Harry was his and therefore was not to be touched by others.

"But I believe that this time I will do nothing to you." At his words Smith's shoulders shagged in clear relief.

"Thank you my lord, I will make sure not to disappoint you in the future." The boy whispered, relief evident in his voice as he spoke.

Not listening to his babblings Voldemort cut Smith of before more could be said. "What do you know about werewolves?" He asked instead, knowing that the students went over that subject in their third year.

The paleness had returned to Smith's face, together with a rather green tinge around his mouth's corners. "Th-they are classified as dark creatures, though according to the Ministry rules they are to be viewed as humans unless it's the time of the fu-full moon. They are allergic to silver."

"How you did not end up in Ravenclaw one can only wonder." Came the sarcastic response. "You barely managed to sum up the basic knowledge there is about werewolves. Any child who has grown up in our world knows more than that before they even enter Hogwarts. It is hardly a wonder than you only received mediocre grades when you refuse to do a better job with your studies."

When Smith attempted to shift away Voldemort sent him crashing to the ground with a Cruciatus. Lifting the curse he stared unimpressed down at the boy, snarling when the smell of urine hit him and a yellow pool was growing under Smith.

At least the Malfoy heir had handled his punishment better and he had been held under the curse longer than Smith had. Yet this one had already broken, the screams had turned into whimpers and tears were running. "You see." He said as he crouched down in front of Smith, his hand closing around the tie and tugging at it until he had Smith's attention.

"Despite werewolves being a part of our society most of them follow traditions. Some of them go all the way back before our Ministry was even a thought. One of those is a celebration of the moon, which is held once every half year. Back in time the muggles supplied the werewolves with the required sacrifice for such a night. The muggles believed that by sacrificing a young man from the village the rest of the people would be safe from the monsters of the moon, as the werewolves were called back then."

When Smith attempted to speak Voldemort pulled at the tie, tightening it until Smith was choking on his breath.

"Now of course the muggles don't believe that we exist outside of the bedtime stories they feed their children with, so they no longer supply the werewolves with the necessary sacrifices to do those rituals with, so when the time is nearing, they usually sent a prisoner who has received a death sentence."

Crimson eyes gained a gruesome tint. "The ritual is a sight to behold. They start it with a fest. That's a time where they allow themselves to be gluttony with both food and alcohol. It is always held in a clearing where they will be able to praise the moon in all its beauty. They will wear the skins of the animals they have each hunted, to show what kind of hunters they are. In the middle of the clearing a ring of fire will be lit. In that ring the ritual's sacrifice will be, bound to a pole and naked. Once the food is gone, the ritual will start. By that time the fire will be nothing more than embers."

Smith was listening with wide eyes, and it surprised Voldemort that the boy had yet to interrupt him. Perhaps he had yet to catch up on what was going to happen, or maybe he was too terrified to form any actual words.

"Since the moon is viewed as a female, the sacrifice will always be a male. But according to the werewolves, the moon is a hard mistress and will only be pleased by seeing other's blood. That does not stop them from attempting to gain her goodwill by offering her what is considered the definition of the male specimen."

Smith's eyes widened in sudden understanding and Voldemort chuckled when the Hufflepuff's hands went to cover his private parts with a whimper.

"The sacrifice will be conscious through the whole process thanks to a brew it was given before the ritual's start. When the penis is removed and thrown into the embers, the alpha will use the same knife to cut the moon's markings into the sacrifice's skin. By that time the sacrifice will mostly have grown silent, since they will have screamed their voice cord raw. When the moon reaches its highest point, the final cut will be placed. It will run from one ear, under your chin and to the other ear. The cut will be shallow enough so that the sacrifice does not die right away, but will suffocate on their own blood."

Voldemort rose, still holding the tie and forcing Smith on his feet to stand on his toes if he wanted to breathe. "Now, the new moon is only a few days away, which is the time for the ritual to be held. Originally I had planned on sending the usual prisoner to them, but I believe that Fenrir will appreciate the change."

Before Smith had a chance to react Voldemort had tapped his wand against the black and yellow tie. "Portus." He said and suddenly let go of the tie, making it so Smith stumbled and landed on his rear. "You should be grateful, Mr. Smith, it is highly unlikely that you will see me again. And give Fenrir Greyback my greetings."

Saying the alpha's name Voldemort activated the portkey he had made out of Smith's tie and the wizard disappeared from Hogwarts' ground.

Though not having gotten rid of his bloodlust, Voldemort was rather satisfied with this decision, now he only needed to deal with the Gryffindor who was the reason that Harry had been involved in the first place.

**)00(**

"Hand me the Boomslang skin, will you?" Low crackling followed his whispered request as his somewhat friend dumped the ingredient into his hand.

None of them dared to be too loud, the knowledge of who was right on the other side of the closed door helped them to keep the tone lower than it normally would have been when the two of them were together like now.

Used to the other's antics Harry merely nodded his thanks as he proceeded to dump the ingredient into the nearly done potion.

"Little Potty is being naughty." Came the sing song voice from Peeves who was floating around in the room Harry had been given while he apparently was staying with Voldemort.

Rolling his eyes Harry stirred the potion seven times counter clockwise before he placed the ladle aside. It had taken them hours to get all the needed instruments smuggled into the room, considering that the two of them had had to do it right under Voldemort's nose, Harry would say that it was a job well done.

"So which one taught the other babytalk, you or Bellatrix?" He asked in honest curiosity, as there was nothing for him to do until the potion had started to boil.

Peeves floated down so he was on eyelevel with Harry. "Ichy bitchy Bella wasn't a glint in her father's eyes when I started!" The poltergeist started crackling loudly, but remembering where they were and how close they were to the one who could actually exorcise him from Hogwarts, the poltergeist placed his hands over his mouth though it didn't help much on the sound.

As soon as the potion started to boil, Harry was forced to turn his full attention back to it. Luckily Peeves knew well enough to not do anything to disturb him.

It wasn't like they were friends, more like allies who used each other to their own advantage. Harry had sought Peeves out after seeing the poltergeist bombarded a group of first years with water balloons and had offered him a deal.

As long as Harry supplied Peeves with different supplies, the poltergeist would not pull any pranks on Harry on purpose and would also assist when Harry needed help to take some pretty revenge on someone.

All in all it was a good deal, and until now Harry would say that it had worked rather well for the both of them.

"Do you remember what you are supposed to do?" He asked when the potion reached a point where it didn't demand his whole attention.

"Yes, little Pottykins, Peeves does remember. When the houseelves are preparing breakfast, I'll sneak in and dump this in the drink, then hurry out before anyone sees me, easy peachy." The poltergeist said in a tone that told him that it would be just like that.

Harry was already looking forward to see the changes in the morning.

**)00(**

Harry got to enjoy the result of his and Peeves' work when he left the rooms with Voldemort early next morning.

They were already several levels down when they met the first students who had been in the Great Hall. As one they stopped to look at what was in front of them, though only one of them knew who was behind this.

It was the ties that told Harry that it was a group of Gryffindors they had run into. Otherwise Harry wouldn't have been able to tell that they were humans. Each person was covered by a thick fur that varied from lime green to bright pink, and their feet had grown several swellings, forcing them to waddle rather than walking.

Harry knew that he couldn't have asked Peeves to target only those who had been involved in the attack yesterday. Then he might as well have stood up in front of the whole school and told them who was behind this.

And since others were involved in this prank, he couldn't have chosen something really harmful.

But a little humiliation would never hurt anyone and the itching that would follow once the fur started to fall off might help them to learn a lesson.

When the Gryffindors had rounded a corner as fast as they could in their currently state, Harry became aware that Voldemort was staring at him. "I swear that I have been nowhere near food or drinks. But my guess is that it is nothing harmful and it should go away in a day or two." Of course he looked forward to when the first ones tried to shave of the fur. After each attempt the fur would reappear, but an inch longer than it had been before.

He wondered how long it would take before people caught up on that.

"Tell your little poltergeist friend, that when he tries to smuggle things into your room, he shouldn't crackle." Was all Voldemort said, before he continued walking, leaving a gaping Harry behind him, before the seer shook himself and had to run to catch up with him.

**)00(**

Four days had passed since Harry's run in with Smith's fists and all marks from the fight were long gone. But Voldemort had proved that the saying 'out of eye, out of mind' didn't apply to him. Whatever had happened to Smith, Harry had yet to figure out, not that he was particularly interested in knowing, but he had seen neither hide nor hair of the Hufflepuff since their encounter.

The sudden loss of house points for all four houses, or the fact that a great deal of Slytherins and younger Ravenclaws found themselves in detention didn't escape anyone's attention and quickly become the new main source to rumours, though most seemed unsure of what had caused this to happen. And those who had been involved in the incident seemed less inclined to explain it to anyone.

The worst part of it was that Voldemort had decided that Nagini was no longer enough to keep Harry out of troubles. Therefore he found himself in human company at every waking moment.

Even now where he was in the library Harry could feel the weight of his watcher's gaze resting on him. Added to that was the everlasting noise around him, since people seemed to ignore the fact that this was a library and Harry found it hard to concentrate on the text he was supposed to read. It didn't help that the text was written in old English, and with so small script that he had to see what letter was what.

The only reason to why he was not with Voldemort, was because the man was currently at the Ministry. Now where Harry knew that the Veil was there, he had absolutely no wish about going anywhere near that place. To his surprise Voldemort had not argued against that, but simply told him to stay with whoever had been chosen as his guard for the day.

The seer didn't react when someone sat down across from him. It was hardly that strange since the tables were already filled. Harry guessed that the unnatural high amount of people who were not Ravenclaws had something to do with the massive loss of points the houses had suffered from.

When the person across the table cleared their throat Harry ignored them as his quill continued moving over the parchment. It was one of the chores Severus had left for him in the man's absence. Apparently Severus wasn't satisfied with the instructions to a potion in the book he had, and thus he had set Harry to translate a recipe from an older version.

The person cleared their throat again, this time much louder than the first time around. Feeling that they would not leave him alone until he at least acknowledged their existenc,e Harry looked up from the old and well worn page he had been trying to read the last few minutes.

The red and golden tie and the brown bushy hair made Harry return his attention to the book in front of him immediately. He had no intention to talk with her. But his lips quirked a little when he remembered the sparkling yellow fur that had covered her had been.

However, it seemed like the witch had gotten no better to get a hint since the last time Harry had been so unfortunate to meet her.

"I wanted to thank you." Surprised by her words Harry's head snapped back up with such a speed that he was sure that something would snap. Wide green eyes stared at Granger for a moment before they returned to normal size.

He was surprised to see how pale she looked. While she hadn't had a healthy tan the last time he had seen her, she almost looked sick right now. Harry almost hoped for that to happen, since it would mean that she would be thrown out of the library faster than one could say lumos.

Saying nothing Harry simply accepted her words with a nod. Perhaps that would be all and he would be allowed to go back to his work. He remembered having seen Granger here before, always by herself and with her nose buried in a book. Maybe she would just sit quietly and work on whatever she had come here for now where she had been allowed to say her piece.

"I have read several books about your kind. Most need crystal balls or euphonise mixtures to get into the spiritual plane where they claim to be able to gain knowledge about the future. But according to what I have been able to find, you do neither. Ninety precent of those few who have been proved to be seers, usually speak prophecies. Do you believe that there is a reason to why you get visions instead? I have looked up these cases that were documented and my theory is that it might be your mother's blood that unlocked that ability. Imagine how it would change this world if we were able to prove the good effect of mixing new blood into the old pureblood families."

Placing the quill aside Harry was fairly sure that he wouldn't get more work off hand as long as she kept rambling like that. Her speech had already started to draw attention from the tables nearby.

"Even if that was true, then I doubt that there would come any good reactions out of that theory. I doubt that any sane pureblood would risk their children's magic, even if it meant that something unusual result might come out of it. It would simply not be worth the risk." He said coldly, hoping to deter her from the idea straight away.

Even Harry knew that such ideas could bring no good. Purebloods were set in their ways. A bloody miracle would have to happen to make them change their opinions.

However, Granger seemed no less enthuastic as she threw herself into the next subject, as if she had only said it to ensure that she had Harry's attention. "Last year we were assigned an assignment about the Accident Greece in History of Magic. I went over it just to make sure that I still remembered it all. Were you aware that back then all the oracles were virgins until they died? The Greeks firmly believed that any sexual interaction meant that the oracles would lose their ability to be able to see into the future. According to my sources they believed that the Gods sent visions to the oracles, but only those with a pure body and soul would be able to receive the message."

"I know, and they're wrong." Harry stated, having read those books Granger was referring to. He had wanted as much knowledge about his abilities when he had arrived at Hogwarts, but those books had only helped making him more confused than he had already been.

"How do you know? Are you a virgin, or have you already-"

"I believe that you have overstayed your welcome here, mudblood." Drawled Draco, dragging the pair's attention to him and Theodore, who for once was not hidden behind a book.

At Draco's insult, Granger's earlier enthusiasm disappeared and her face closed off. "What are you doing here, Malfoy? I thought you were allergic to books, perhaps an ill effect to all the inbreeding your ancestors took part in?"

Harry kept his mouth closed, despite wanting to jump into his friend's defence. As the heir to the Malfoy family Draco was expected to be able to defend his family honour without outside help. Harry would only do more harm than good if he attempted to intervene.

Besides, the look on Draco's face told Harry that Granger wouldn't like his reaction to her little comment.

"Do you know who my father is, mudblood?" Harry rolled his eyes, having heard the start of Draco's sentence so many times that he had lost count. But he refrained from commenting, interesting in seeing where Draco would go with this. "He is a school governor and he gets to decide which of your kind is lucky enough to be here instead of whatever place your kind calls a school. One word from me and you'll be back there without having a chance of getting anywhere in life. So be a good little mudblood and hurry off so we don't have to suffer your stink any longer."

To Harry's surprise she actually stood and scooped her books back in her backpack without showing much care for the items. Sending them all a glare Granger's eyes came to rest on Malfoy. "At least I have proved that I am here because I am good enough and not simply because daddy dearest has a seat in the government." With that she stalked away, leaving the library with her head held high.

"Scourgify." After using the cleaning charm Draco took the seat Granger had vacated. At Harry's raised eyebrow Draco merely tilted his head to the side, allowing Theodore to sit down on the remaining free seat. "What?"

"She was annoying, but was it really necessary to threat her?" There was no doubt in his mind that Draco could and would go through with the threat if he found a reason to do so.

"As you pointed out, she was annoying. For some reason she is one of those who believes that it has to be true if it is written in a book. She's a downright pain to have classes with, always trying to correct the professors. Just because she scored a high enough average she believes that she can act all high and mighty and get her muggle ways to look far better than the way we have been living for centuries."

Nodding in understanding Harry returned to his work, though his thoughts lingered at what Draco had said.

Muggleborns were schooled at another place. When he took over, Voldemort had originally planned on removing children from their muggle families at the first sign of magic. It could be adopted by a magical family and by the time the child was ready for Hogwarts, they would be fully instigated in their society.

But too many people had protested, claiming that it would be inhuman to remove a child from their families and then oblivate the muggles.

Instead a school had been created where the muggleborns would be enrolled as soon as their first accidental magic was registered. At eleven, those who showed a great promise were allowed to become students at Hogwarts. How Granger had made it into that group when she apparently saw the Muggle world as something better one could only wonder about.

"So Harry." Draco said, drawing Harry from his work, however reluctant it might be. "Was the bookworm correct? Does a seer lose their visions when they have sex?"

Harry let his head hit the table with a dull thud, uncaring that he was smearing ink over the parchment and thus destroying his carefully done work.

**)00(**

**Harry Potter, a seer or mentally disturbed?**

**By Rita Skeeter**

**My dear readers, as I am sure that you are all aware of, there have been plenty speculations about a male whom has been spotted on different occasions with the Dark Lord. **

**The first time they were seen together was at the steps to Gringotts, where they apparated in together. Before they went into the back this reporter had a first seat view of the Dark Lord feeding this mystical male chocolate with a care I do not believe that anyone else has been receiving before.**

**For a long time we have all been wondering about the identity of the Dark Lord's companion, I finally am able to give you answers to this question.**

**Unlike what we previously assumed, the Dark Lord's companion is not a wizard, but a squib named Harry Potter, the assistant of Potions master Severus Snape. This is rather a shock, but Mr. Potter is also a rather unusual person.**

**Mr. Potter's life is rather a mystery. There are records of his birth, but after that he disappears until the age of eleven. There he showed up at the Ministry, accompanied by Potions master Severus Snape, where he took the Ministry test, which proved him to be a squib. At the same time Potions master Snape signed the guardian papers for his new assistant. **

**Once again Mr. Potter disappears from public until a few months ago.**

**Now Mr. Potter has been spotted several times with either the Dark Lord or prominent death eaters such as the Lestranges.**

**Why should those important people show an interest in the known son of two rebels? The answer is simple my dear readers.**

**Harry Potter is a seer.**

The three days old article continued like that, summing up the little that was known about his life.

What greatly disturbed Harry was the fact that Skeeter had somehow gotten hold of what had happened in the Ministry. Both the vision and later his reaction to the Veil, which in turn made her question his sanity and whether or not it would be best to keep him locked up so he wouldn't be able to harm anyone, if he someday should lose it.

Of course Skeeter hadn't formulated it like that, but Harry caught the gist of what she meant. 

"Stupid article, stupid news-paper, and stupid Skeeter." Disgusted Harry threw the Daily Prophet away, watching as the papers spread over the tiles.

The seer didn't as much as flinch when Myrtle floated through one of the closed stall doors. "What has gotten you worked up, Harry?" The ghost asked as she settled down next to Harry, with her back against the wall. "It's been so long since you visited me, I thought you had died and proceeded on without telling me." The ghost complained.

Her words pulled a slight smile to his lips. "Don't worry, Myrtle. Should I die, I'll make sure that you know about it." He promised. One thing he had learned from his many talks with the ghost was not to take deaths, at least not his own, so heavy.

"Things have just been rather busy lately, otherwise I would have made sure to look by sooner." It had taken him quite a few tours through hidden passages after he had left Draco and Theodore in the library, to shake his escort off. But with the portraits being loyal to Voldemort it probably wouldn't take long before he managed to track him down.

A shiver ran through his body when Myrtle moved closer, her ghostly body nearly touching his living one. "How did you die?" He had already heard the story plenty of times but knew that it would distract her from touching him.

Unlike other ghost Myrtle lit up in delight at the prospect of retelling the tale of her death. "I remember it as if it was yesterday. Olive Hornby had made fun of my glasses, so I was hiding in the stall, crying." As she spoke, Myrtle floated over to the stall she was speaking about. "Suddenly I heard a voice, I couldn't understand what was said, I could hear that it was a boy. I opened the door to tell him that he wasn't allowed to be here, and then I died. The last thing I saw were yellow eyes."

"What do you mean? You never mentioned anything about any eyes before." Racking his brain Harry realised that it was true. Myrtle had always ended the short story with her death, and it had always been a mystery to him how she had died.

"Yes, there were eyes. They were big and yellow. I think that they were over by the sinks. But I never saw the boy. When I opened my eyes I was a ghost and he was already gone. Funny, one would think that we would notice it if someone had eyes like that. They were quite noticeable."

Harry was only listening with half an ear as he inspected the sinks. Crouching down Harry paused when he spotted the figure of a snake having been engraved on a sink tap. It looked very real, but also rather old, making him wonder who had made it, and also why it was here. Some Gryffindor might have thought of it as a clever way to insult the Slytherins. But why hide it like this, where no one would be able to find it unless they were looking for it?

As a child Harry had often wandered around Hogwarts' corridors on his own, uncovering passages and hidden rooms which he doubted that many knew about. Most of it had been by luck, but sometimes a feeling had urged him on, leading him to a new discovery.

It was the same feeling that was urging Harry on now, making him move his lips and speak Parseltongue as he stared directly at the snake engraving. "_Open_."

Harry had to jump back as the sinks started to move. When everything stopped moving Harry stepped forward, looking down into a deep hole which seemed to be bottomless. "Hey Myrtle, where do you think this leads to?" Receiving no answer Harry took a few steps forward, until he was standing at the hole's edge and staring into the darkness.

"If you fall down and die, you are welcome to share a stall with me." Not having expected Myrtle to get this close, Harry instinctively took a step forward. But there was nothing to step on when he placed his foot down and before Harry even could grab for something he found himself falling.

It seemed like the fall lasted an eternity. The hole twisted so Harry was no longer falling, but rather sliding down the slimy surface. His hands were panicked attempting to grab for something that could possible stop his fall. But everything he got hold on, broke off, sending him on his way down without even slowling him down.

The tour ended much sooner than Harry had expected it to. Suddenly there was no more tunnel and Harry landed hard on his arse, hearing something break under him.

Already something wet was seeping through his trousers, damping the fabric. Pushing himself to his feet Harry staggered a little before he regained his balance. Turning around Harry looked the way he had come from. Harry was able to see the opening far above him. "There is no way that I can come back that way." He mumbled, absent minded rubbing his sore hands. He didn't fancy another tour like the one he had gotten if he attempted to climb that thing. Even Hogwarts' outside wall had more holding spots than the tube. And the blood running from the cuts on his hands would make it hard to keep a proper hold on anything.

Either he should stay here and wait for help to come or he should start searching for another way out of here.

Taking a step away from the opening Harry had reached a decision. It could take hours before someone came looking for him. Probably less once Voldemort was notified that he had gone missing. But maybe he could find a way out of here on his own.

At the very best he could use the waiting time for rescue to explore this place.

Moving around proved to be a lot harder than Harry had expected. The walls produced enough light for him to see where to walk. But rubbles, smaller stones and a wide variety of other objects spread over the floor made it hard to find spots where he could place his feet without falling. It was by no means warm down here and he had already started to shiver, wishing that he had put on warmer robes this morning.

There were several smaller tunnels but Harry stuck to the one he had been following all the time, and which seemed slightly bigger than the rest of them. That way he would at least be able to find back to his starting point should he reach a blind end.

"Merlin's pants!" Harry froze, staring wide eyed at the sight before him.

It was a part of the snake's life to shred its skin when it grew. Harry knew this. Even if Severus hadn't explained it when they had received Nagini's shred skins to use for potions, he had seen enough snakes to be aware of this.

But what kind of snake grew so big that it left behind skin roughly thirty feet long? Curious he eyes the poison green coloured skin, debating with himself. He had no idea if the snake was still around, or if it was still alive. There was no guaranty that if he turned back now that he would not run into it, and staying where he was would probably not be much better.

He might be a parselmouth, but for a few snakes that meant nothing, as experience had already taught him. He could only hope that this snake didn't belong in that category.

As he moved forward, Harry mentally ran over the list of snakes he knew it could be. It helped a great deal that no non magical snake would ever be able to reach such a size.

The conclusion Harry reached left him with a tightened throat.

As far as he knew there was only one kind of snake what whose skin it could be – a Basilisk. And what little he knew about this one didn't make him feel at ease.

Hopefully he wouldn't actually get to meet the Basilisk while he was down here, though he was curious to what it was doing under a magical school.

Biting down on his lower lip Harry edged around the skin. No matter what he did, he could end getting badly screwed.

Harry stopped again when he came to a wall with two intertwined snakes carved into the stones. He stared at the snakes' eyes which seemed to be made out of emeralds.

For a long while Harry simply stared at the wall with his head tilted to the side. He knew that it was not a normal death end. After all none of the other walls were decorated like this.

"_Open_." Parseltongue slipped over his lips as easy as nothing and Harry watched as the snakes parted and the wall opened like a sliding door, allowing him entrance.

Harry found himself standing in the end of a long chamber. Snake engravings decorated high stone columns, but no matter how hard he looked up, Harry was unable to see any ceiling, hidden in the darkness as it was. As it had been in the corridor, the chamber was bathed in a strange green light which seemed to come from no source.

As he moved forward, Harry became aware of a statue at the other end of the chamber. The top of the statue disappeared into the darkness, making Harry wonder how high it was.

Harry had to tilt his head back to look at the stone face. It was the face of an old man, with a long, thin beard that nearly reached the edge of the robe, where a pair of enormous feet was solid planted on the floor.

After all the snake decorations it was rather strange to see something so humanlike. Harry walked closer until he was right in front of where the feet had to be. Leaning forward he realised that something was written at the hem of the robes. "Speak _to me, Slytherin, greatest of the Hogwarts Four_."

Harry jumped and quickly backtracked until his back hit a wall, his eyes resting steady at the statue's mouth. It opened, until it looked like a black hole.

Instinctively he threw himself to the side when something big emerged from the open mouth with great speed. Harry was back on his feet and facing whatever had come out of the statue before his mind had even caught up with what happened.

What kind of person made a statue that vomited when someone spoke to it and then proceeded to hide it away down here?

Seeing the thing that had come out of the mouth move, Harry realised that his first assumption was wrong. Averting his eyes at the first glimpse of green scales Harry stared at the floor, realising just what kind of situation he had managed to get himself into.

If not for the wall behind him, Harry would have retreated further as the being started to move and uncoil.

"_So hungry_." The loud hissing sent an unpleasant shiver down Harry's spine, as he pressed himself closer to the wall, well aware that he was fully visible to the snake taking up a great deal of the floor space.

"_I don't think I would make a good meal. There is too little meat on me to satisfy the hunger of such a magnificent snake such as you_." Harry hissed while keeping his eyes at a spot right in front of his feet. He wasn't able to see the snake itself, but hopefully the shadows would be able to warn him when the snake decided to move.

"_A speaker, it is so long since I've last seen one. Marvolo has been too busy to visit lately, saying that he has found a mate_." At the basilisk's words Harry's breath hitched. So Voldemort was together with someone, or at least someone had caught the man's interest. Then why the bloody hell had Voldemort kissed him.

"_I see_." Was all he said, trying to figure out what the strange pang in his chest meant. Was he getting sick? It would be no wonder with how cold it was down here, but usually sickness didn't show up this fast.

In anger Harry nearly raised his gaze, until he remembered just who else was in the cold chamber with him. "_Who are you, little speaker. Are you Marvolo's hatchling_?" At the question Harry shock his head. He couldn't even start to imagine how it would be to be related to the man. How different would his life had been if he had grown up in the Wizarding world?

Perhaps the thoughts were better left for another day where he was not facing a basilisk which had just declared that it was hungry. "_No, we're related, but it is distant_."

A huff of air against his face told Harry that the snake was much closer than he preferred it to be, but he didn't dare to move, not just yet. One wrong move and he might be its lunch.

"_Are you the mate he has been speaking of_?" The question caught Harry off guard.

"_No_."

"_Then I will satisfy my hunger with you_!"

Hearing the snake move, Harry decided that it was a brilliant idea to follow its example, and he started fast walking along the wall, keeping one hand in front of him to make sure that he didn't run head first into something.

A thumb near where he had been standing seconds ago made Harry wonder if the snake had banged head first into the wall. But he did look not back to see whether that was the case or not.

Instead he dared to open his eyes so he would be able to see where he was going. He figured it didn't really matter. If he kept his eyes closed, it was just a question of time before he fell over something, and then the snake would catch him anyway. This way he would at least get a quick death if he managed to look into its eyes.

The snake's tail stuck over his head, making a dent in the wall and sending small pieces of debris flying through the air.

"_You miss_-" No more was being said as the tail abruptly changed course, slamming into him with the same force as it'd previously hit the wall with, sending him flying through the chamber.

Harry landed hard enough to get the air knocked out of his lungs and something under him broke. Wheezing for air Harry rolled away, begging that the something didn't belong to him. Looking at where he'd landed, Harry felt a strange mixture of relief and disgust seeing the small pile of white bones he had landed in. From the looks of those that were not damaged beyond recognition, Harry knew that they had once belonged to a human.

A quick sweep of his eyes told Harry that the basilisk was still at the other side of the room. By the way its body was twisted Harry guessed that it was watching him, waiting for him to get back on his feet so that the game could continue.

For that was all this was to the snake. A game that would ultimate lead to him getting eaten by the basilisk.

So instead Harry decided to drag the time out for as long as possible, trying to catch his breath. His eyes wandered, carefully avoiding where he knew that the basilisk was, while he planned his next move.

The door he'd arrived through was not an option. The basilisk was between him and the door. A miracle would have to happen if Harry should have any hope of getting past the beast.

In the opposite direction there was the statue, but Harry was hesitant to get near it. What was to ensure that it would not vomit more snakes? One basilisk was bad enough, Harry had no idea how he should deal with it if more were to come.

An idea came to him when Harry shifted again and his eyes wandered along the wall he was near.

Halfway between the basilisk and him there was a small opening in the wall. It wasn't that big, but Harry knew that it would have to make do. If he accomplished that he would figure out what his next move should be afterwards.

Slowly Harry got on his hands and feet, keeping an eye at the basilisk. Whether or not he would end as food depended on the basilisk and its desire to keep playing with him.

Moving Harry threw himself forward, scrambling to his feet and starting to run. As he had hoped, the snake matched his movement, speeding forward and past him to ensure that he wouldn't get to the statue.

As soon as that happened, Harry changed course so he instead sprinted back the way he'd come from and slightly towards where the door was. Somewhere behind him he heard hissing curses, storing the most colourful ones away for later use and otherwise he ignored what was being said.

The basilisk wasn't late to catch up with him, but this time Harry managed to duck under the tail that nearly smashed his head to the ground.

While the basilisk had positioned itself so it was barricading the door out, Harry wasn't deterred. He relished the fact that it hadn't figured out what he was doing.

He was two steps from the hole when the basilisk apparently grew tired of its game and lunged for him. Harry let out a fearful squeak as he jumped, knowing that he only had this one chance unless he wanted to end up being the reptile's next meal.

The hole was much smaller than Harry first had thought it would be. Turning sideways he pulled in his stomach and started forcing himself through the narrow opening, uncaring about the hard stones that tore his clothes and dug into his skin.

The basilisk's jaws closed around empty air as Harry disappeared into the safety of the hole. "_That is cheating! Get out here, I'm hungry_!" The loud voice made his ears ring. When there was sudden darkness, Harry closed his eyes. He had gotten as far in as he could at the current moment and because of the way the hole was formed he was unable to look away should the snake decide to look inside.

Something warm flickered against his left arm, startling Harry so he banged the back of his head into hard stones when he tried to move away from what he realised was the basilisk's tongue.

"_Get out here little speaker_!" When Harry refused to show any kind of reaction to the words, the snake threw itself against the wall. Harry flinched when dust and stone fell down on him, making him cough. "_You can't stay in there forever. Sooner or later you'll be thirsty and hungry, and when you come out again, I'll be here, waiting for you_!"

From behind his closed eyelids, Harry noticed that it got lighter, hinting that the basilisk had moved away from the hole. Still he kept his eyes closed, not trusting himself to be fast enough should the basilisk decide to reappear.

Loathe as he was to admit it, Harry knew that the basilisk had been right. Unless he wanted to die from starvation or thirst, he would have to leave at some point. And since he doubted that the basilisk had anywhere else to be, it would most likely be there, waiting for him to show up.

No matter what he chose, it seemed like he was doomed.

Shifting in hope of getting into a more comfortable position, though he couldn't move much, Harry's attention was pulled downward at the sound of metal hitting against stone. He managed to tilt his head enough to see what it was. The bracelet sat innocently around his wrist, gleaming slightly in the chamber's light, and a grin spread on Harry's lips.

Voldemort would probably soon be informed about his disappearance, but Harry might as well speed up the process a little.

Wriggling around Harry managed to get his arm into a position where he could better move the appendage. After his stay in the dungeon, Voldemort had explained how the charms on the bracelet had been adjusted. There had been a lot of long words in that explanation, but Harry believed that he'd gotten the gist of what Voldemort had meant. He had listened enough to know that Voldemort would be informed when he was hurt. The bracelet would not warn Voldemort whenever Harry got a small cut, as he was due to when preparing ingredients, but something bigger should be able to set of whatever charm Voldemort had adjusted.

Determined to see whether or not this would work, Harry brought his hand down hard at the wall in front of him. He winced at the pain that sprung from his already wounded hand but carried on. Having worked with potions for years Harry had learned the importance of taking good care of his hands, so that their state would not affect his work in a negative way. But as he couldn't move much else than his head, Harry guessed that this was the preferred thing to do, though Severus might disagree if he happened to learn of what had happened.

At the sixth hit Harry felt something wet run down his hand, at the same time he was unable to contain the tears that had been building up. Vaguely he was aware of the basilisk. It was aware of what he was doing and thought it was unfair that it couldn't just have a small taste.

Harry smiled in half amusement. The basilisk would probably consider eating his arm as having a small taste.

He continued his work even as the basilisk drove into the wall, determined to force him out by making stones fall down on him. Luckily none of them were big enough to do any real damage. While it might help to bring Voldemort down here faster, Harry preferred to be conscious when that happened.

He was bringing his hand down for the eleventh time when something seized him around the wrist, stopping him before his hand could make contact with the surface in front of him.

Shocked Harry opened his eyes and found himself staring into dark red eyes which seemed anything but amused. "Nice that you would come, can you let go of my hand?" Harry chipped, his cheeks burning because of the knowledge that Voldemort could see the tracks of tears the tears he'd shred.

But the embarrassment was nothing compared to the relief Harry felt at Voldemort's appearance. He had been fearing that the jewellery wouldn't be working and thus he would be stuck down here until he was nothing more than a rotten corpse.

To his relief Voldemort let go of his hand, which felt sore but also rather numb at this point, strange considering the amount of damage Harry knew that he'd probably done to it. After all, there had been no reason to be gentle, quite the opposite in fact.

"_Get out. She is gone and will not disturb us_." Was the only thing said, as Voldemort withdrew so he no longer was blocking the exit.

But as Harry attempted to leave, he found that his body didn't move an inch. Cursing under his breath, Harry tried again, only to find that the stones seemed to dig further into his chest and back, making him wince in discomfort.

The spare light dimmed when Voldemort reappeared. The man said nothing, seemingly having realised Harry's problem in one glance.

Voldemort's arm reached inside the passage, the message clear to Harry. He placed his damaged hand, as the other was about as stuck as the rest of him, in it and was surprised when Voldemort changed his grip so he was holding around the wrist instead of the hand.

"_When I start pulling, you'll follow my lead_." Harry was given no time to answer as Voldemort started to pull and Harry tried to follow him. The stones scraped against his skin in the places where his robes had already been torn.

But Harry didn't move enough to make himself believe that he would come unstuck anytime soon. "_Wait a moment_." Voldemort let go of his wrist and instead let his hand wander over the walls, mumbling words too fast and too soft for Harry to catch them.

But he didn't need to hear them to feel the effect of whatever Voldemort was doing almost immediately.

The stones which had previously been pressing against his ribs seemed to move away, making Harry take a deep breath, feeling relief as air rushed into his lung.

With a stubborn look in his eyes, Voldemort started leaning back, using his full weight to pull Harry out.

As Voldemort leaned further back Harry finally felt himself start to move. Delighted he opened his mouth to inform Voldemort about the progress, only to find that things suddenly happened too fast.

Suddenly stones were no longer pressing against his ribs and therefore no longer holding him in place. Harry came to realise that this had not been the best thing to happen seeing as Voldemort was still pulling.

Harry was pulled out of the narrow passage much faster than he had thought he could be and it sent him stumbling into Voldemort. Apparently neither had the Dark Lord been prepared for his sudden release, so when Harry slammed into him, Voldemort lost his footing and they were both falling.

This time Harry landed somewhat soft, as he had Voldemort underneath him. The same could not be said about Voldemort, who hit the ground with full force.

For a while they laid like that, nothing but their chests moving as they breathed. In the end Harry had to move first as his left hand had been caught between them and no matter how strangely numb it had been before, he was certainly starting to regret what he had done.

Sitting up Harry looked around, but was unable to spot the basilisk anywhere, just like Voldemort had promised him. It was a relief to know that he wouldn't have to start running for his life because of a giant reptile.

Fingers closed around his jaw and Harry's head was jerked around so he was looking down at Voldemort. There were patterns of grey dust on the wizard's robe from where Harry had landed, but otherwise Voldemort looked his usual perfect self, if only a tad annoyed.

"_What exactly are you doing down here, and how did you find this place_?"

Sensing the danger in Voldemort's voice, Harry refrained from shrugging, which would have been his first response. And since he didn't really have an answer to the first part of Voldemort's question, he might as well tell what had lead to this situation. "_Apparently some things in this castle open when you speak Parseltongue to them_." He said, trying to be nonchalant about the whole thing. If Voldemort believed that Harry had stumbled into this by accident, which was kind of what had happened, he might act less hard.

"_This is not a place that one finds without searching for it. Now tell me the truth_!" The harsh demand had Harry gritting his teeth, but as he didn't want to anger Voldemort more than the man already appeared to have been, Harry complied.

While he told his tale Voldemort said nothing, but Harry found himself unable to break away from the man's eyes though it didn't worry him. There was only one person that could see through his shields, and Severus had repeatedly proved that he respected Harry's privacy. How come that Severus could do what so many Order members had failed, one could only guess.

Harry's favourite theory was that he trusted the man, after all Severus had never bothered lying to him or let him down.

"_And that is when I decided to see if I could help speeding things up a little_." He finished his tale, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. Now, where he was looking back Harry was able to see how stupid he'd been. Severus would have his head if the man ever learned of how careless Harry had acted.

But right now Harry had to worry about a whole other wizard who seemed none too happy with him.

"_Are you aware of how close to dying you came today_?" Surprised at the question Harry could only blink. It almost sounded like Voldemort was concerned about him. "_First of all, you don't jump into holes you do not know where they will lead you_." At this Harry scowled. It wasn't like he'd asked Myrtle to spook him. But maybe, if he hadn't been standing so close to the edge, he might not have fallen.

"_And I know that even if you lack common sense, Severus would have taught you not to read something aloud when you do not know for sure if it is harmful_." Again Harry shifted uncomfortably. Yes, that was indeed one of the first things he remembered that Severus had taught him. That had become a rule after Harry had accidently gotten his hands on a book which wasn't meant to be read aloud and as a result had attempted to eat his face.

It had taken days before Harry had gotten rid of the horns. And that was only because Severus had refused to magic them away, claiming that it would serve as a well learnt experience for Harry.

"_But I suppose that you did well in the way you handed the basilisk, and though I would have preferred that you had waited, your tactic was indeed effective_." Voldemort finished, leaving Harry confused whether he should be embarrassed over being berated or proud of Voldemort's grudgingly given praise.

That was until his brain remembered something that had been nagging him. "_What's a basilisk doing here in the first place_?" In his opinion such a things shouldn't be allowed anywhere near children.

"_Get up first. You might not be aware of it, but this floor is cold and uncomfortable. And stop wiggling around like a flobberworm_!" For a moment Harry paused before sliding off Voldemort and onto the floor. Voldemort's right, the floor was rather hard to sit on.

As soon as he was standing Voldemort helped Harry to his feet, keeping the seer close, as if he thought that Harry wouldn't be able to stand on his own. But Harry didn't protest. In fact he rather enjoyed feeling the warmth from Voldemort's body and he couldn't help but lean a little closer to him. If Voldemort noticed this, he thankfully didn't comment on it.

"_Salazar Slytherin placed the basilisk down here before he was banished by the other founders. It is meant to be a part of the school's defences should Hogwarts ever be attacked_." Voldemort said as they left the chamber and started walking back the way Harry had come from. The wizard cast a lumos so they could better see where they were going as he spoke.

"_I found the entrance back in my fifth year. It was then I realised how dangerous the basilisk was_." Thinking about Myrtle Harry had a nagging feeling about what Voldemort was talking about. "_Since Slytherin left, no one entered the chamber before I, and the centuries of solitude haven't been kind to it. It refuses to let me relocate it, since it is following the last orders its master gave it. And you don't find a basilisk this old, so I refuse to put it down_."

What Voldemort said made sense. But it didn't stop Harry from thinking of all the uses the basilisk parts could have when used in a potion.

Severus would be delirious when Harry told him what was right under their feet. The Potions master would undoubtedly want to meet the snake personally and see if there was not a way for him to persuade it to give up a few parts for him to experiment with.

On second thought Harry decided to keep the knowledge to himself. A parselmouth was needed to gain access to the chamber and since there were only two known users there was no doubt about who Severus would be dragging with him.

And if Harry had any say in it, he would happily avoid seeing the basilisk for the rest of his life.

They reached the tunnel Harry had slided down in much less time than Harry remembered it had taken him. Once there Harry glanced up. "What are we going to do now?" Somehow Harry doubted that Voldemort had been sliding down. Perhaps the man was hiding a broom somewhere on his body?

"Watch, my little seer." A blush coloured his face at the endearment. Thankfully Voldemort had his back turned to him and it wasn't like there was anyone else there to see his reaction.

Harry berated himself for the reaction. There were so many things wrong with it that he didn't even know where to being. But most fresh in his mind was what the basilisk had told him about how Voldemort had chosen someone for his mate.

"_Stairs_." Harry could only gape when the steps started to appear right in front of his eyes.

"_Bloody Hell_!"

I think this long chapter is a fine apology for my long absence. If not, blame the one who hacked my mail account and then changed my passwords and security questions so I couldn't send this one to my beta. Luckily I have my own little hacker, though it took him some time to have time to help me. Homemade cookies to him.

This time I recommend

Gears of Love by LaontinaStardust

The Martyr's Morning by Sincerely-AnonymousP

December the 1 is my birthday, so if there comes no more updates, blame it on my family who has decided to visit then. While I do love them so many people in a very cramped apartment has never been a good idea.


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

"You need to keep your hand in this bowl for an hour, and then the potion should have done its work." Harry accepted the bowl from Narcissa, but didn't make a move to put his wounded hand into the purple coloured potion.

Instead he looked around the woman, where Voldemort stood hovering over them, making sure that Narcissa was doing a proper work, and raised an eyebrow at the man. After all, Harry had insisted that it had been unnecessary to summon the woman, seeing that nothing was done to his hand that a simple potion would not be able to fix, and yet Voldemort had refused to listen to reason.

Voldemort seemed to understand the unsaid message just fine. "_You might have some understanding about potions, but Narcissa is as good as a fully trained mediwitch and would have been able to spot it, if anything had been out of order_." In a few strides he was next to the chair Harry was seated in, Narcisssa stepping aside so he had clear way. To Narcissa he said, changing to English instead of Parseltongue. "Wait outside." The woman nodded, gathering the things she had taken with her and left the room, not saying a word to either male.

Without warning, Voldemort leaned forward, picked up Harry's wrist and guided the wounded appendage into the bowl's contents.

A hiss passed over his lips as Harry instantly felt when the potion started to work on his hand. Despite knowing that it was supposed to sting like Hell, Harry still tried to yank his hand out of the substance.

Voldemort countered the move by tightening his grip around the wrist until Harry was sure he felt the bones grind against each other and he stopped squirming.

It was either that or continue and find out if Voldemort was willing to break his wrist.

"_If you continue like this, I will deem it necessary to tie you up in the bed so you will not be able to leave it, to keep you safe_." The moment the man said it, Harry knew he was serious. After all, the deal between them still left a great space for both of them to move around on, and Voldemort would undoubtedly carry out the threat if he viewed it as necessary.

"_I'm quite fine on my own_." Harry argued back, trying to fight back the blush that had bloomed at Voldemort's words. He tugged lightly at his hand, seeing as Voldemort had yet to let go. When his hand was released Harry brought his hand and the bowl to his other side, where Voldemort would not be able to reach it just as easily.

Of course, if Voldemort was determined on something, Harry guessed that such a small distance would hardly matter.

"_Thanks for saving me from the basilisk_." Harry said when he felt like the silence had become too strained. It wasn't that he'd doubted that Voldemort would come for him. If nothing else, then because the man wouldn't risk losing his ticket to knowledge about the future.

Voldemort swept down so their noses were nearly touching. Suddenly nervous Harry went nearly cross eyed as he stared back. The man was close, and Harry half feared, half hoped for another of Voldemort's kisses. All that was required was that one of them closed the small distance between them and their lips would be touching.

"_How did you find the entrance to the Chamber_?" Voldemort's breath washed over Harry, wrapping him in the smell of coffee and it took a moment before his mind registered the question he'd been asked.

Now where he thought about it, he was rather surprised that the topic had not been brought up before now. "_It was an accident_?" Somehow he managed to form what should have been a statement into a question.

The look on Voldemort's face told Harry that the man too had noticed his uncertainty and he wouldn't be late to use it.

"_One does not stumble on the Chamber of Secrets by calamity. You would have had to be deliberately searching to be able to locate it. Now, answer my question or you will have to face the consequences_." At Voldemort's words, Harry closed his eyes, swallowing. He didn't want to rat out Myrtle, as her involvement would be hard to hide. On the other hand, she was already dead, so exactly what would Voldemort be able to do to the ghost?

And whatever Voldemort had in mind, couldn't possible be worth it.

Harry let his tongue wander over his lips, noticing the way Voldemort's eyes seemed to follow the move. "_I wanted to have some alone time, so I went to the haunted bathroom on the second floor, no one uses it anyway because Myrtle is there_." As he spoke, Harry's words started rushing as he wanted to get over with this as fast as possible. "_I asked her about how she died, she told me, telling about how she had seen some yellow eyes nearby the sinks right before she died. When I found the snake engraving, I spoke to it and the entrance appeared. Soon I found myself sliding down the slide that had appeared_."

"_Why didn't you wait for help once you reached the bottom_?"

"_If you had the patience to wait, perhaps I would come to that_." Harry snapped back at the man, wondering what it would sound like if anyone had been listening in on their conversation. After all, he and Voldemort were the only living people who were supposed to understand and speak Parseltongue, so to anyone else it probably sounded like a bunch of weird hissing noises.

"_I figured that whatever the heck had killed Myrtle might be there and since I couldn't climb up the way I'd come from, I decided to search for another exit or somewhere to hide." _And when he had learned of the basilisk being down there, Harry had only felt more eager to leave. But as his luck had wanted it, he had met the basilisk despite his wish.

It wasn't like it was his fault that someone had charmed the statue to vomit whenever someone read the written sentence aloud.

Normally he would say that it was Gryffindor humour, but considering what had come out of the statue's mouth, Harry was easily convinced that he had been in the Chamber of Secrets. It was something he could imagine Slytherin having done. "_Do not curse, it is uncouth_."

Harry opened his mouth to make a retort, only to close it again, not really believing his own ears. Of all the things Voldemort could focus on, he decided on something that held absolutely no importance whatsoever.

While he had finally gotten to know what had caused Myrtle's death, so many other questions seemed to be on his mind.

He wanted to see the so-called mate the basilisk claimed Voldemort had chosen. And he would figure out why his stomach made painful flops when he thought of the mate.

Seeing that Harry wasn't about to say anything, Voldemort drew back, much to Harry's relief as he found it easier to breathe without the other so close to his person. "_When your hand is healed and you have cleaned up, you may search me out. Nagini will be able to guide you, seeing as you cannot be left to your own device without getting into troubles_."

Harry was about to protest that troubles seemed to find him, and not the other way, but Voldemort had already left.

Silence filled the room now where Voldemort was gone, leaving Harry free to think.

Voldemort had basically saved him by commanding the basilisk away, or whatever he had done. Yet, Harry did not feel a life debt. He had of course read up on the subject after realising that Draco and the rest of the Malfoys owed him one, wanting to know exactly what it would mean.

One thing he had learned was that the one doing the rescue had to do it without any expectations of receiving a reward of any kind for a life debt to form. So, since it appeared not to have happened, it meant that Voldemort had wanted something by rescuing him.

Harry leaned back in the chair with a frown on his face, this was something he needed to think about.

**)00(**

"So you decided to grace us with your presence." Voldemort greeted the moment Harry stepped inside the room, following close behind Nagini. Green eyes flickered to Voldemort, nodding to him before Harry turned his attention to the man sitting in a chair across from Voldemort.

The man was short and plump, with a pointed black beard, and, when he turned to face Harry, the seer saw that he'd laughter wrinkles around the corner of his eyes. There were silver streaks in his dark hair, and though the man seemed to have been fit in his youth, he was starting to develop a stomach.

"The potion took longer than expected." Harry merely said, leaving it to the listeners to draw their own conclusions about what he meant. Harry didn't recognise the visitor, meaning that he either was not British or just not important enough for him to know about him. Seeing that the man was in here with Voldemort, the former seemed more likely to him.

"Harry, this is Sebastian Delacour, the newly appointed French ambassador and his daughter, Fleur Delacour. Monsieur Delacour, this is my seer, Lord Harry Potter." Voldemort leaned back in his chair after finishing his presentation, watching when Harry finally took notice of the only female for the first time since he'd entered the room.

Seated in a comfortable looking chair a little away from the duo was Fleur Delacour. Harry supposed that she could be called a beautiful, perhaps even breathtaking person to look at with her long, silvery blonde hair, and large deep blue eyes. Even as she was sitting she was tall and willowy, with an air of grace that probably matched that of a Malfoy. Large, deep blue eyes were looking at him through long eyelashes.

Harry crooked his head slightly to the side, not taking his eyes off the woman. There was something about her that told him that she might not be entirely human. It was not unusual for pureblood families to marry their children to those classified as creatures, but that still looked humanlike enough so it didn't affect future children's looks. It was a way to give future generations a power boost and avoid inbreeding without having to turn to the muggles and, though in a lesser degree, the muggleborns.

Realising that he'd been staring while being in deep thoughts, Harry withdrew his gaze. "It's a honour to meet both of you." He said, finally remembering some of those manners Severus had attempted to drill into his head.

"The same can be said, Lord Potter. I must say that I have heard rather much about you, at least when one takes into consideration how little public knowledge there is to find about you." The ambassador's forwardness threw Harry off the loop, making him wonder what the man knew. Despite the digging she'd probably been doing, Skeeter had not been able to find out more about his life. At least that was what Harry hoped. It could also be that she would be saving it for something big, though he preferred not to think about it.

But Mr. Delacour was a politician and a pretty high one to be chosen for this position, or perhaps there was someone higher up in the food chain who wanted to get rid of the man, considering that his predecessor had yet to be located.

"It must have been rather dull, ambassador, I'm afraid that I haven't led the most exiting life." Harry said, forcing a polite smile onto his face. From the look he got in return, Harry knew that the other didn't believe him, and it made him wonder what the man had been able to find out about him.

Before he had a chance to dwell further on that subject, Voldemort apparently decided that it was time for him to cut in. "Perhaps, Harry, you will show miss Fleur around, seeing as this is the first time she is here and she has already expressed an interest in following her father's footsteps and work on bettering the connection between Britain and France."

Knowing that Voldemort was trying to get him out of the room, Harry shot Voldemort a look, the only sign of his displeasure. He disliked being manipulated, and a gut feeling told him that it was exactly what Voldemort was doing right now.

But he couldn't do anything, at least not in front of the French. If nothing else, Harry was well aware of how unstable the alliance between the two countries was. He didn't want to be the one who made it even worse. In his eyes it was bad enough that Voldemort apparently had decided to show him off like some kind of pet the man could boast about, like some small child trying to compete with the others in the school yard.

With a last brief glare at Voldemort Harry turned to Fleur, his face clear of any of his thoughts. "Since it is soon dinner, perhaps you will allow me to escort you to the Great Hall? On the way, I will be able to show you some of the more noteworthy things about Hogwarts." He offered with what he hoped could be taken as a charming smile.

Her eyes stayed at his face, giving Harry the feeling that she was looking for something, what it exactly was, Harry had no idea about, but whether she found it or not, the French witch accepted his outstretched hand and let him help her up. "I will see you later, Papa. And thank you for your hospitableness, Lord Voldemort." Her accent was thicker than her father's, but the words were still recognisable.

Harry let go of her hand, and with a nod to both males whom had remained seated, he led her out of the room. The door closed gently behind them, cutting off the sounds of the two men who had started conversing silently in a mix of English and French.

True to his words Harry led them to the Great Hall, taking his time to point out things that might be interesting for her. He didn't use the shortcuts, though they saw several others come and disappear through some of the more well known ones.

When Fleur had asked about those, Harry felt his lips twist into a smirk. "Now, that would be telling, wouldn't it? I think that it's a tradition to let the students discover the secrets of Hogwarts on their own, or with a minimal amount of help from others."

"But none of us are students, Lord Potter." She purred, placing her hand lightly on his arm and blinked rapidly while tilting her head slightly to look at him.

Staring at her, Harry started to get a little worried. He wasn't used to deal with French people, but he was pretty sure that it wasn't normal behaviour, no matter where one was from. "Have you gotten something in your eyes?" He finally asked.

Abruptly the blinking stopped, but now Fleur was staring at him intensely, making Harry wonder if he'd done something to offend her. He didn't suppose that he had, but who knew? Already Fleur had acted rather disturbing by brushing against him, far more times than could have been accidental and she had asked questions about him, which Harry thought that he had avoided answering rather well.

After all, he was supposed to show her around, not give her his life story.

To his surprise the woman broke out in giggles, quickly covering her mouth with a pale and slender hand. Harry stared at her before taking a small step away from her. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a shadow in one of the portraits he knew had been following since they'd left the third floor.

However, before he could figure out who they were being followed by and why they were being spied on, Fleur demanded his attention back. "You are an amusing little boy, Arry Potter."

Harry's head snapped towards her, bristling at her words. "I'll let you know that I will turn seventeen in a few months, so I'm no one's little boy." Harry bared his teeth at her, though it didn't seem to have much of an effect on the witch.

"My apologies, Lord Potter. Didn't intend to insult you, please call me Fleur." Harry firmly stamped down any rude comments before they could leave his mouth. Her many mood changes were unnerving.

Perhaps it was that time of the month?

"Then call me Harry." He requested. When he glanced around, their follower was gone, Harry decided to not think more about it. Perhaps he was just being a tad paranoid. Who could blame him after what had happened today?

The amount of people around them grew as they came closer to the Great Hall, Harry was aware that they were gaining attention from the people they passed, male and female alike.

He pushed the discomfort aside, instead focussing on their conversation. After her strange blinking and giggling fit Fleur seemed to have loosened up, or perhaps turned into a more normal person. Now they were arguing about which of the schools was the best. Beauxbatons or Hogwarts. Since Harry was not a student and thus had no idea how the lessons were, other than when his friends or Severus spoke about them, he was at a disadvantage at the academic angle.

But there was more to Hogwarts than just the schooling, which he made an effort of pointing out.

"British food is so heavy and greasy, nothing compared to what we enjoy in France. You will have to visit some day and try a few courses. Like you have shown me this school, I will show you the wonders of my country." Fleur said as they entered the Great Hall together, almost unconsciously Harry's feet led them to the table where he knew most familiar faces would be found.

"I think you are confusing us with the Americans. British food is just fine, no frog legs. But I hardly think that it's fair to compare a school to a country, then again, France wouldn't stand a chance to living here at Hogwarts." Harry bantered, sitting down at the first free seat he found with Fleur sitting down next to him.

Scooping food onto his plate since dinner had started a little while ago, Harry concluded that he would have to go to the library soon. A hush had fallen over the entire Great Hall upon the arrival and Harry had a feeling that it had something to do with the woman he'd been appointed to be guide for.

It was different, and while he didn't know the reason for the sudden silence, Harry figured that he might as well enjoy the peace for as long as it lasted.

But, alas, it didn't stay this way for as long as Harry had originally hoped for.

"My father is our Lord's right hand man." The outburst came from Draco, seated on the opposite side of the table. The words were accompanied by a wide arm swipe that knocked over a few goblets with pumpkin juice in them, though the mess it created seemed to be ignored by the males nearest to them.

Harry looked over at Draco, a frown on his face. The blond was ignoring his attention, only seeing Fleur though the woman continued eating as if what was going on held no importance for her. There was a strange gleam in the grey eyes, and when Harry leaned over and waved his hand in front of Draco's face, the blond didn't as much as blink.

With a huff of astonishment Harry dumped back on his seat, wondering what had caused this change.

"I am the heir to several powerful, Italian pureblood families." The exclaiming came from Blaise, who was looking around his fiancé to stare at Fleur, spotting the same dreamy expression as Draco.

Looking around from where he was sitting, Harry saw several people with the same look on their faces, mostly males but a few females seemed to be influenced by what was going on too. And the closer they were, the stronger it seemed to be.

"So, 'Arry, why don't you tell me what people usually do when they are not studying" Fleur's voice dragged Harry's attention back to her.

"There is a small magical town with a few shops not far from here, which the students are allowed to visit on certain days. You can see it from one of the taller towers. Some times there are tournaments in Exploding Snap among the houses. And then there are the Quidditch teams." He explained, taking a bite of the food and only now realising how hungry he actually was.

It seemed like running from a mad basilisk was a good way to work off some energy.

"I am the Captain and Keeper for the Slytherin team, and we have won the Quidditch cup the last sixteen years!" Blaise cut in, sending Draco a smug look before looking back at Fleur, pushing forth his chest as he spoke.

However, his moment of greatness was interrupted by a snort from Draco. "That is hardly something to brag about. I hold the Seeker position and have done so since my second year. And, as we all know, the Seeker is the most important player on the team." The two friends were attempting to glare holes into each other's skull, skilfully ignoring Pansy who was being squeezed between their bodies. She looked about ready to curse something, or rather someone.

Harry moved closer to Vincent, who was on his left. Hopefully the bigger boy wouldn't mind being used as a shield in case that things took a turn for the worse.

Blaise seemed to be under the influence of whatever was affecting Draco. Seeing Pansy make small, jerking movements, Harry leaned slightly more to the side to be able to discretely glance under the table. He winced when he saw her heel connect with Blaise's shin, and yet the Italian didn't as much as blink.

"All you need to be a Seeker is a somewhat good sight. It is the Captain, who keeps the team together, plans the training sessions and who leads his team to victory with the strategies he comes up with." By now they were leaned so far towards each other, that their noses were nearly touching, unaffected by the elbows Pansy was rudely showing into their midsections.

"Care to prove it, Zabini? Let us find out which one of us is the best on a broom." The two wizards looked about ready to jump the other one, uncaring about the tension in the Great Hall, or whatever punishment that would lead to if they actually attempted to do something.

His brain was working overtime, trying to figure out what was the cause to this change.

As the heirs to prominent pureblood families, both knew better than to create scenes in such public places. Harry had seen the playful banter the two sometimes had in the privacy of the Slytherin common room, and this wasn't anything like that.

He hadn't seen a spell been cast, and since it wasn't a subject he was strong in, Harry was unable to think of what could be behind this.

But potions, was a whole other thing. He could list several that would stimulate people's behaviour into a certain direction.

Suspicious he glanced at Fleur, only to avert his gaze back to his plate when he found her looking at him like a hawk. If he hadn't known better, he would have thought that he could see something like feathers under her skin.

But that was ridiculous.

When had she had time to sneak into the kitchen and order the houseelves to dose the food with a potion? And how had she even managed to find the kitchen in the first place when Harry knew that she hadn't been to Hogwarts before?

"Let us find out right now, Malfoy. We'll have a race, around the lake. And the one who first completes a whole round will be declared the winner." With that both Draco and Blaise left the table, undoubtedly to fetch their brooms and then head to the Black lake.

**)00(**

"Shall I assume that you would like to know the result of the experiment?" Salazar's voice reached the two wizards easily when he entered his frame in the room.

The founder of Hogwarts waited a while after having announced his presence, not saying anything else. While he did encourage his kin to ensure that his goals were reached, it didn't mean that he appreciated being sent off to spy on adolescences.

Especially when he had had to hide in a portrait of an annoying knight, because the little seer had somehow become suspicious to his presence.

"What was the result, Lord Slytherin?" The French ambassador was the first one to lose his patience, perhaps his kin had become a little too used to the small games he liked to play to relieve himself of boredom.

But as a portrait one had to take the amusement they were offered.

Aware that he was being watched Salazar settled down on the chair which was placed in the side of the portrait, near his hand a purple potion was simmering almost lazily.

"Your family's magic must be quite strong for so many Veela traits to be manifested in your daughter, ambassador." He complimented, meeting his descendant's gaze while speaking and holding it.

The Gryffindor coloured eyes were watching him and though it could not be seen, Salazar knew that the man was impatient to hear what he had to say. He had trained his heir well. Most would not notice the small, nearly non existing signs of the man's annoyance over the avoidance of the subject.

"As expected Mrs. Fleur managed to capture the interest of a vast amount of people, students and portraits alike." The portrait of the mad knight had been mumbling something about slaying a dragon on the fifth floor to prove his worth to the fair lady who was wandering the halls of this school.

"But despite being capable to turn the heads of several adolescences, the lady was unable to affect the seer, even when she turned her Veela allure fully on in the Great Hall." Few people could claim to be unaffected of Veela allure, those who had yet to reach their sexual maturity, or those who were simply not interested in the fair gender.

Seeing that the seer would be considered an adult in a few months, it was quite easily to say which category the little one belonged to.

Still, it had been a dangerous game his heir had played.

Even though he was a portrait, Salazar kept up with politics, and he was well aware of the tender peace there was between Britain and France. And had the quarter Veela been able to, she would have used her charms to get the boy to follow her back to her country. Someone like him would be a big access to whoever was able to control him.

And right now, his heir was the only one who held a claim over the youth.

It might be because he was in deep thoughts, or because the years as a portrait had affected him more than Salazar had previously thought, but when he finally became aware that something was going on, both wizards were already at the door, wands in their hands.

Seeing spells fly over the Black Lake, Salazar hated the fact that he was bound to move only within portraits. It certainly left him at a disadvantage whenever something was going on outside.

**)00(**

By the time they reached the Black Lake, a rather large crowd had been assembled. Harry wasn't surprised to see that most of the males were flocking around Fleur, while the girls stood in another group, looking rather sourly at the French woman.

Harry had joined neither group, not wanting to get into whatever was going on. Thus he had settled down on the ground, next to Theo, who had yet to look up from the thick tome he had brought with him from the Great Hall.

His eyes slid over to Draco and Blaise, who were making a rather big show of arguing with each other, often their gazes would flick over to Fleur as if to gauge her reaction, but she mostly looked rather annoyed with the whole thing.

"You know, they can't be blamed for it." Theo's voice startled Harry out of his surveillance, not having expected the bookish Slytherin to speak.

"What do you mean?" He asked, not taking his eyes off the two wizards who had mouthed their brooms and had already set off.

Despite their different positions on the teams, Blaise and Draco used the same kind of broom, a Firebolt, meaning that it would be on skills alone that they would have to win on.

"Fleur Delacour is the daughter of Sebastian Delacour, the newly promoted French ambassador and Apolline Delacour, the Minister of France, who is a half Veela. Rumour has it that she inherited a great amount of Veela genes, even more than her mother. Of course she would use it to see whether she would be able to gain your attention." Of course Harry had heard of Veela. They were supposed to be the subject of every teenage boy's dream. At least until they turned into their birdlike forms and threw fireballs when angered.

It certainly explained why people around him acted so strangely upon being near Fleur.

"But shouldn't I be affected too? I mean, I'm a boy and she is a Veela?" Harry trailed of when Theodore looked up from the book for the first time, amusement twinkling in his eyes.

"Actually, there are a few the Veela are not able to affect. Like children, or those who don't find delight in their flesh. My guess is that you belong to the later group." Harry fell silent upon Theo's answer. It certainly wasn't what he had expected to hear.

Of course he wasn't a child. Sometimes Harry wondered if there had ever been a time where he had been allowed to be one.

He'd had a feeling that he wasn't straight. Mostly because he found girls uninteresting, they were simply wrongly formed, and the one time he had seen a girl cry, he had fled in the opposite direction, not looking back once.

"How about you, you don't seem to be affected?" He finally asked, his gaze back at the pair who had only half the length of the lake left and was still side by side.

"According to what I have been able to find out from the books I have consulted, I am asexual. People simply do not interest me in that kind of way. Books on the other hand, are much more interesting." Before any wrong thoughts could form in his head, Harry pushed them aside, focussing back on the race.

It was nice to know that he wasn't the only one who was unaffected by Veela.

Draco and Blaise were now fifty feet away from them, racing forward without showing any sign of one of them being able to take the lead.

Since their brooms and skills seemed evenly matched, the duo had to use tricks in hope of getting in front of the other. Harry watched as they pushed each other, trying to off balance them, or even knock them off the broom. He hoped it wouldn't come that far. Unless they landed in the water, a fall with the speed they had could do some serious damage.

Several tentacles broke through the water's surface, heading straight for the two flyers. Draco, despite being the farthest away from the lake, was the first one who noticed the danger heading straight towards them.

The blond gave Blaise a light shove, thankfully not hard enough to send him closer to the squid, before abruptly pulling upwards and brining himself out of reach.

But Blaise seemed to think that the push was one of Draco's attempts to gain the upper hand in the race and was thus unprepared when he was stuck by one of the fang arms, which quickly closed around him to prevent him from escaping.

A snap sounded and the broom Blaise had been riding fell to the ground in two pieces.

Seeing the tentacles starting to retreat towards the middle of the lake, Harry spun into action. His feet were moving even before his brain had started trying to come up with a possible plan.

Feeling water soak through his trousers Harry came to an abrupt halt, realising where he was heading. He didn't have a wand and the tentacles were already out of his reach.

Instead he bent down, gathering several small stones that littered the bottom of this part of the lake.

Without wasting time to think, Harry threw the first handful of stones at the creature, not sure about how much use it would be, but it was the only thing he could do unless he attempted to swim after it.

He was already gathering more before the first stones had even hit their target.

As he continued throwing stones, fireballs and different spells followed behind him. Harry didn't bother to look back to know where the fireballs came from. The Veela's defences were well known, though most people preferred to remember them for their beauty rather than the feathered creatures they turned into when angered.

None of the spell casters dared to do anything too harming in fear of accidentally hitting Blaise who was still dangling from one of the tentacles. Their attacks didn't seem to have any effect other than helping to anger the squid even more than it already was.

And as Harry was the closest the squid decided to take its frustrations out on him.

One of the tentacles came sweeping down on him, and while Harry was able to move away from it despite the water at waist level, he never saw the arm that came from under the water.

He was knocked off of his feet before he had much of a chance to figure out what was going on.

The dark water closed abruptly around Harry. Despite having been standing in the water for some minutes by now, it was still a shock when he found it wrapped around him.

There was a roar around him, caused by the giant squid's movements, the only thing he was able to hear. He was jerked around in the water.

He lost any sense of how deep down he might be or where the surface was. The cold water felt like burning needles against his skin. Despite the weather having taken a turn for the warmer, the water was still freezing to be in.

His lungs were screaming for air, and through the water was murky he attempted to watch the bubbles to find out what was up and down, but it was impossible to see in the swirling the many tentacles' movements were creating.

Harry attempted to move into the one direction he hoped would be upwards, but one of the tentacles hit him, knocking him out of course and making Harry feel that he was out in deeper water than he had been before.

Panic grabbed Harry as the urge to breathe grew with every second. He attempted to move his limbs, but even if they hadn't been cold, his movements were clumsy and unsure. It wasn't like anyone had bothered to teach him how to swim in the first place.

His feet connected with something hard and Harry used it to kick off, hoping that this would take him in the right direction.

But for a third time one of the tentacles hit him, this time right in the chest and Harry was sent propelling through the water, the remaining air forced out of his lungs at the collusion.

Harry opened his mouth, needing to breathe, but his mouth was filled with water, not the air he longed for.

His eyes stung as his throat constricted, trying to expel the water he had already swallowed.

Suddenly his whole body was yanked in the opposite direction of where Harry had been floating. Wildly Harry attempted to grab for something that would stop whatever force that was moving him around like a ragdoll. He didn't want to drown, but neither could he simply let himself be dragged off to wherever he was heading to, but there was nothing he could do to stop or at least slow it down a little.

He broke through the water's surface abruptly and flew through the air until he collided with something solid that didn't move at the impact. Before he could fall, arms closed around him, keeping him standing.

Only aware that he was no longer in the lake, Harry coughed, trying to get air into his lungs while expelling the water he had swallowed.

As if understanding what he wanted, the one holding him, definitely a male judging from the lack of breasts, loosened their hold enough to allow him to lean forward. A hand landed on his back, hard. And while Harry winced at the pain it brought, the effect was immediate. His lungs contracted, forcing the water out of them and down on the ground in front of his feet.

Harry closed his eyes, not wanting to see the mixture of water and food which was there. He hung limp, his whole weight resting against the arm around his midsection while he simply concentrated on the feeling of being able to breathe unhindered.

Slowly he became aware that the hand which had hit him was now rubbing soothing circles on his back.

Whipping water from his face Harry turned his head, wanting to know who was holding him up.

Red eyes met with his green before they looked away and Harry found himself following their movements.

He easily found Blaise, who was being supported by Draco and Gregory. As if sensing that he was being watched, Blaise looked in his direction, his face splitting into a grin which Harry found himself returning. Though the Italian looked rather winded from his dance with the giant squid, he didn't seem to have suffered.

Being held close Harry followed when Voldemort turned, now facing Fleur and her father. Harry did a double take when he noticed the small soft looking feathers that created a circle around the witch's neck. Mr. Delacour was standing in a respectful distance to his daughter, perhaps he feared her doing something when she had already started on the transformation to the Veela's birdlike stadia. Still, the man kept close enough to intervene should it prove to be necessary.

"Ambassador, calm your daughter before she causes more havoc than she has already managed to." Voldemort snapped, for once not bothering to keep his tone polite, but rather sharp and cold that sent shivers down Harry's spine.

With a grim expression Mr. Delacour stepped over to Fleur and carefully placed a hand on her arm. Her head snapped up to look at him, breaking her staring contest with the lake, though she still looked attentive, as if she expected a new attack to come at any moment.

Mr. Delacour spoke to his daughter in French with a soft voice. At first she answered him back with high pitched croons. Harry wondered if people found this just a weird as when he and Voldemort conversed in Parseltongue. But she seemed to visibly calm and the feathers retreated back under her skin as Fleur started speaking in French.

Finally all signs of feathers were gone and Fleur used her wand to straighten her hair and clothes, looking every bit like a human as she had done before.

When she looked at them, Voldemort's hand at his chest pressed Harry closer to Voldemort's body, keeping Harry in place. Not that Harry had any plans about moving anywhere. He was cold and Voldemort's body provided a source of warmth that Harry wasn't willing to part with. "Lord Voldemort, I sincerely apologise for what my daughter's actions caused. I assure you that she didn't intend for anyone to be harmed. Of course the French Ministry will be prepared to pay for any damage there might have been caused."

Harry didn't need to look behind him to know that Voldemort was pleased with this outcome. The man's mind was probably working on all the possibilities the ambassador's words gave him.

He almost felt sorry for the Frenchman, Voldemort was too much of a Slytherin to let an opportunity like this pass him.

"Perhaps the French Minister will be interested in hearing what happened here today." Voldemort intrigued softly, making Harry frown. Sure, he understood that Voldemort would attempt and take the best advantage of this, but he felt that this might be pushing it. While the Minster was responsible for their workers, to a certain degree, Fleur was only connected to them through her father.

Mr. Delacour nodded. "I will make sure that my wife is correctly informed about this, Lord Voldemort, you can be assured about this. Now, if you will excuse us, I believe that it is time for us to leave."

"As you will." Voldemort accepted, waving forth Theo. "Mr. Nott, be so kind to lead them to the gate where they will be able to use their portkey." Theo bowed, his book somehow gone though Harry was sure that it would be back the moment he had finished his task.

"It would be an honour if you would allow me to escort you out of this premise." Theo said, though something in the bookish Slytherin's voice told Harry that the words were not meant.

Harry didn't have a chance to say his goodbyes to Fleur. A thug in his body was the only warning he got before he instinctively closed his eyes and was whisked away by Voldemort.

He didn't need to open his eyes to know that he was indoors. The sudden warmth that engulfed his body was more than hint enough for him. After his cold bath in the Black Lake the change in temperature was a true relief though it didn't help much which the shivers that were running through his body, and they had absolutely nothing to do with how close Voldemort was pressed against his back.

He was pleased to find that one of Voldemort's hands was still sprawled out across his chest not having moved since Harry had found himself in the man's hold.

"_You_ _look like a drowned kitten, hatchling_." Were Nagini's words as she came sliding forward to greet them while Harry opened his eyes, staring at her in annoyance. The snake stopped a little distance from them, careful not to get anywhere near the puddle of water that had created beneath Harry's feet.

"_Let us chuck you in the lake and then we will see how you look when you emerge again_." Harry retorted as Nagini levelled herself so they were face to face.

They were in Voldemort's room, much to Harry's relief. Right now he didn't want to be around more people than necessary. He was unsettled enough as it was, and just wanted to be left alone.

As if reading his thoughts Voldemort let go of him and stepped away. A small sigh escaped Harry when the fire in the fireplace sprung to life, though it only helped him to realise how cold and wet he was. "_I need a bath_." He mumbled, loud enough for Voldemort to hear.

However, instead of answering Voldemort let his magic wash over him. Harry stood completely still, waiting for it to be over. It wasn't uncomfortable, far from it actually. Harry had to gather himself before his legs gave out under him. He'd embarrassed himself more than enough today.

His only consolation was that he hadn't been affected by Fleur's allure.

"_It would seem that you have been lucky. Other than some bruises on your chest area, you have managed to get out of the ordeal unharmed_." There was a cold tone to Voldemort's voice, making Harry believe that the man had more to say, but refrained from doing so.

Personally Harry disagreed. It was his so called luck that got him into this kind of situations in the first place. "I thought that you didn't know healing spells." He finally stated, rubbing his freezing hands against his robe. Not that it helped much to drive the coldness away, seeing as his clothes were just as wet as the rest of him.

Voldemort's hands were back on his body, running up and down Harry's sides until he accidentally pressed against one of the bruises on his ribs he had acquired. "_It was a diagnostic spell. And while I am adapt in the arts of healing, I prefer to leave it to those who have dedicated their lives to it_."

"_Right, you just don't want to admit that there is something you might not be good at_." He was broken off by a wince when Voldemort pressed down on the same spot as before. "_Would you stop that_!" He slapped the hands away and stepped away from Voldemort who looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"_Since you apparently are lacking in your belief in my abilities in magical healing, I checked whether or not you have a broken rib the muggle way. It wouldn't do for you to puncture a lung and drown in your own blood when you have just avoided a similar fate, just with water_." Somehow Harry simply found it hard to believe the innocence Voldemort was picturing, though he supposed that it was touching that the man was caring about him.

"_Since I am fine, I think I'll just take that bath now_." He said with a nod to himself before stepping around Voldemort.

"_Tell me, what is your opinion of Ms. Delacour_?" Sounded Voldemort's voice from behind, making Harry stop as he reached the door leading to his own room.

"_She was weird_." He said with a small grimace, still facing the door as he felt Voldemort step up behind him. "_And without doubt dangerous with the things she could make people say or do in hope that they would win her affection. But I don't think that Pansy liked her_." Or any of the other witches with the way Fleur had stolen most males' attentions with hardly any afford. But Harry looked forward to see what Blaise would do to get back in her good grace. The witch could hold a grudge like no one else.

"_Thanks_ _for getting me out of the lake, and for saving me from the basilisk_." Before more could be said, Harry had already slipped through the open door and closed it behind him. Voldemort could easily follow if that was what he wanted, but Harry hoped that the man would respect his desire for privacy.

With long strides Harry crossed the room and entered the bathroom that was connected to his room.

Once in there, Harry closed and locked the door before stripping himself of his clothes. It took longer than it normally would as the wet fabric clung to him like a second skin. But after a few minutes fight, he stood naked as the day he'd been born, the shred clothes leaving a trail after him on the floor.

Harry went for the shower, completely bypassing the bathtub. He didn't think that he would be able to use it in the nearest future. Not without feeling the water fill his lungs once again.

Shuddering at the thought Harry turned on the water and stepped in under the beam without bothering to wait for it to reach a comfortable temperature. As a consequence a hiss was forced from him when hot droplets came in contact with his cooled down skin.

Ever so slowly he became used to the temperature and finally his muscles started to relax.

Slumping against the glass wall Harry stared at the brown water as it disappeared down the drain.

Shivers ran through his body and Harry's teeth clamped down on his lower lip, forcing the tears that threatened to spill, back.

Two times today he'd come dangerously close to dying. And both times Voldemort had come to his rescue. The feelings this knowledge left him with confused Harry.

He knew that Voldemort only did it for himself, but it didn't stop the warm feeling in his chest to spread when he thought of it.

Frowning Harry placed a hand over his heart, right where Voldemort's had been. Why did it flutter when he thought of Voldemort? Was he getting down with something after his tour in the lake? Harry was sure that no natural sickness could come this fast.

Mentally Harry started a list of symptoms, strangely enough he found that they were connected with Voldemort, and had been going on for quite a while now where he took the time to think about it.

One, he felt warm and comfortable around Voldemort or by simply thinking about the man, though he still managed to put him on the edge with how unpredictable he sometimes seemed to be.

He had also had a few dreams where Voldemort featured, which had left him in a quite awkward position in the mornings. They weren't of the kind one would usually have about a Dark Lord.

Granted, Harry didn't know what those kinds of dreams should be about, but they sure as Hell weren't supposed to involve an underclad man.

Green eyes widened with realisation as he thought more about what those dreams had been about, mentally cursing himself for not seeing it sooner.

He had a crush on Voldemort.

Groaning Harry let his head hit the glass wall. Perhaps if he repeated this enough times he would be able to gain a memory loss of the last few minutes. Either that or he would gain an enormous headache.

No matter how he looked at it, Harry knew that this was doomed from the beginning. It would be better if he found a way to end it before it was allowed to grow.

There was the age difference. Voldemort was well into his seventies, though he definitely didn't look that part. If one only thought about the age Voldemort looked, it couldn't be considered so improper after all.

But otherwise the gap between them was simply too big. Voldemort was the Dark Lord, Ruler of the Wizarding world and one of those who had bothered to treat him like a human being.

It seemed that this method was absolutely not working to convince him as well as he had hoped to.

But at least he knew that he wasn't the only one who had a hopeless crush. The giant spuid had after all attacked Blaise and Draco for a reason.

Laughter mixed with the sound of falling water when Harry tried to imagine what kind of children that might come out of a pairing between the squid and a quarter Veela.

**)00(**

Wrapped up in a blanket Harry stared blankly at the book he was balancing on his bend knees.

He'd read the same few phrases a dozen of times and yet his brain seemingly refused to let anything he'd read be registered. It was annoying since the book was from a part of Voldemort's private library and Harry had gotten his hands on it more by chance than anything else.

But at the current time, Harry's thoughts were too scattered for him to focus on the text. For all Harry cared, apocalypse could come, and he probably wouldn't even notice it.

Ever since his run in with the basilisk Harry had found it hard to concentrate on pretty much anything. He seemed to stumble over thin air and run into more things than what could possibly be healthy for him or anyone near him. He's absentminded and if Severus saw him now, the man would refuse to let him near any of the man's precious potions, fearing what Harry's lack of concentration might end with.

Since he had been turned into a somewhat walking catastrophe Harry'd decided to do what he knew even he wouldn't be able to screw up.

He observed.

The basilisk had said that Voldemort had found a mate. Even though Voldemort was good at pulling the emotionless trump, Harry would have liked to think that he at least had some skills when it came to reading the man.

It seemed like he would have to rethink that statement.

Until now, Voldemort had shown no obvious interest in the people around them. Even those whom he'd to deal with due to his role as the leader of the British Wizarding world only received the necessary attention from the man, and nothing more.

Seeing that Voldemort had no current dealings at the Ministry itself Harry had taken to following Voldemort closely. It wasn't because he found the man fascinating, but Harry couldn't help but notice several small things about the man.

Like how Voldemort's lips quirked ever so slightly when he found something funny. It wasn't very noticeable, and one had to know what to look for to spot it. How he, like Severus, shared the trait of sniffing his drink before actually tasting it, done so discrete that most wouldn't notice it and therefore no one would be offended.

And when Voldemort was doing paperwork, he had the habit of swirling the quill around in the ink while he thought.

All those small things made Voldemort seem more human, but it definitely didn't help Harry to get the answers that he was looking for.

One would think that if Voldemort had his eyes on someone he would do something else than work and spend his time with Harry.

An almost absurd idea hit Harry. There was one reason he could think of that might explain why Voldemort wasn't spending any time with the one the man had his eyes on.

With the policy Voldemort used, he would probably lose a great deal of his support if someone found out that the man had fallen for a muggleborn. So, instead of following his heart, in case that Voldemort actually had one, the man observed from afar, watching as his love went on with life, unaware of what feelings they might be stirring inside the man.

He really needed to stop remembering those paperbacks Aunt Petunia had read. It only made him feel more frustrated than he already was.

Pushing the thoughts aside Harry attempted to focus on the book instead. It was rather interesting, or it would be once he got further into it. A few times the author had mentioned something called a Horcrux, and while it was a strange word, Harry was sure that he had heard it once before.

But at the moment he could not say in what connection, and it didn't seem like the author intended to go further into the subject. But considering that the book was one of Voldemort's, it wouldn't surprise Harry if this was a dark subject.

Not that the man didn't have books that didn't belong to the light and grey category, but they were by far outweighed by the darker themed ones.

It would be easier to think if he wasn't plagued by the thrice dammed headache which became more intense with each passing moment, making it hard for him to concentrate on pretty much anything.

As another wave of pain hit him realisation dawned for Harry. He hadn't had a vision for quite a while and somehow he had been so focussed on his thoughts that he'd completely ignored the warning signs of a visions being on its way.

Wanting to know what there was to see, Harry forced himself into a more relaxed position. He kept his gaze at Voldemort, who seemed completely engulfed by whatever he was reading in a chair opposite the couch Harry was sitting on, until his eyes closed and Harry felt himself slip into the vision.

Opening his eyes, Harry found himself standing inside what looked like a big tent instead of sitting on the couch in Voldemort's office. The seer blinked owlish at his surroundings, taking in the many different objects that took up a great deal of the space in the room.

They were made of glass, or some material that looked eerily close to it. There was no doubt in his mind that this was a magical place. The things on the shelves and table had swirling colours in their midst and were producing puffs of rainbow coloured smoke.

The phoenix perched near the desk was also a great hint at where he was, or at least about who resided in this tent. As far as Harry knew, phoenixes didn't stay near muggles for long. For birds they were rather intelligent. And while there was no known way to kill a phoenix, it wouldn't surprise him if the muggles actually managed that feat.

But this one wasn't looking too well. If Harry had to say it, he would guess that it was close to the bird's burning day.

His attention was drawn from the phoenix when someone entered the tent, the way they went through the tent flap indicated that this was their place, or they at least had come there often enough to view it as theirs.

Quickly Harry moved out of the way. While he didn't affect or was affected by what happened in a vision, when one didn't count the times he had gotten sick from some of the things he'd witnessed, he didn't like it when someone passed through him.

He wondered if it was the same feeling ghosts had, or if it was just him. Myrtle and Peeves had been rather unhelpful to clear that.

And considering the way Harry knew he would probably die, he doubted very much that he would be able to find out on his own.

Another pair of feet followed the first set and Harry force his attention back to the current scene, he knew that he couldn't afford missing details if he wanted to figure out why he was seeing this.

A scowl marred his face when Harry caught sight of the lime green robes with shooting stars on them. While the phoenix had been quite the hint about whose place this was, Harry had sincerely hoped that he might be mistaking.

The man wearing those robes had grown a great deal older since Harry had last seen him.

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to resist doing something stupid if he continued staring at Dumbledore, Harry turned his attention to the one who had accompanied the old wizard.

Harry recognised the somewhat chubby build boy, though the young man had lost some stones since Harry had last seen him. Though he was still rather round and looked to have kept his boyish charm. The blond hair had been kept short and he seemed to have missed the growing spurt.

"Neville, my boy, have a seat." The leader of the Order of the Phoenix had already sat down as he spoke, behind the desk and gestured for the other wizard to take one of the chairs in front of the desk. "A lemon drop?" When Longbottom mutely shock his head, Dumbledore seemed somewhat disappointed. "It is a shame that so few people seem to realise what kind of delicatessen lemon drops are, well, I guess that it means that there are more for me." With that he popped one of the lemon drops into his mouth, and a blessed expression spread on his face.

"Sir, not to be rude, but why am I here?" Neville broke the silence, looking rather uncomfortable as he sat there in front of the former headmaster, but while the voice was low, it was enough to make Harry take a second look at the boy.

Neville didn't look much different from those memories Harry had of the time he had spent with the Order. There were smudges of dirt on the boy's hands and some right in front of his left ear.

Before he could dwell in those memories, Dumbledore sighed, pulling Harry's attention back to the duo. It could just be his imagination, but it seemed like the twinkle that was usually in the old man's eyes had dimmed, if only a little.

"I probably should have told you this before. But Neville, my boy, you must understand that I wanted you to enjoy your childhood for as long as possible." Harry didn't bother to hold back a snort at the old man's words. It was just like Dumbledore to make excuses like that when he was about to say something that would change people's lives, and mostly for the worse.

What disturbed him was that the phoenix's eyes flickered over to where he was at the sound, giving Harry the feeling that the bird was aware that his was there, even if Harry knew that it was not possible. After all this had not happened yet, so why should the bird react like that?

It had probably just reacted to some sound that it had heard from outside the tent.

Nonetheless he would try and refrain from making that kind of outburst in the future.

"A prophecy, my boy." At those words, Harry snapped back to attention. Apparently he had missed a part of the conversation during his small round of panic.

"What prophecy, professor Dumbledore?" Harry scowled openly at the title. It wasn't wrong to call Dumbledore a professor, though the man was no longer teaching. At least he wasn't being called headmaster.

But Neville had asked the question that Harry too wanted answers to, so he withheld rude comments, instead opting to listen on what was being said. Besides, it helped distracting him from the phoenix, which was still staring at the spot he stood, as if it knew that he was there. "Before you were born, and Hogwarts was still viewed as the safest place to be next to Gringotts, I met with a woman interested in becoming our new Divination professor. She was rather promising, being a descendant of the late seer C. Trelawny. And during that interview I had the honour of experiencing that she indeed shared her grandmother's gift."

By now Harry had moved so he was standing next to Neville, staring intently at the headmaster, waiting to hear more. But Dumbledore took his time, eating more of his lemon drops.

When Harry felt like he was about to snap, Dumbledore finally spoke, as if he'd been waiting for this moment. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

Dumbledore let the words sink in with Neville, and, unknowingly, Harry too, before he spoke again. "Unfortunately one of Voldemort's spies overheard the prophecy and was able to bring it to his master. While he didn't hear the whole prophecy, it was enough to get Voldemort's attention when he heard it."

The way Neville flinched each time Voldemort's name was said didn't escape Harry attention. If this was heading the way that Harry thought, Dumbledore had become barmier than the last time Harry'd had the displeasure of seeing the man, no matter how much he believed that should not be possible. "Pr-professor, why are y-you telling me this? Who is the one the pro-prophecy is about?" The fragile hope in Neville was visibly destroyed when Dumbledore spoke again.

"There were originally two children, who fit into the prophecy. You and Harry Potter. And only Voldemort would have been able to decide whom it should be, by marking his slayer. But on Halloween, when you both were little over a year old, James did an old pureblood ritual, concerned by his son's lack of accidental magic. Same day, young Harry was left with his mother's relatives, and both James and Lily grieved over the fact that their firstborn was a squib and the knowledge that it wouldn't be safe for him to grow up in our world."

Harry scowled at the way Dumbledore sugar coated the story. He almost made it sound like Harry's parents had cared for him. If that had been the case they wouldn't have abandoned him in the first, or they would at least have bothered to check up on him, to see that he was safe and well.

"But professor, I'm nothing special. What if the prophecy is about Harry and You Know Who? I was never marked, but maybe Harry was? The newspapers said that he's living at Hogwarts, and has been seen with He Who Must Not Be Named." Harry could only stare at Neville, not sure if he should laugh or just shake his head.

Even if the prophecy was about him, Harry would refuse to participate. Why should he help the Order when it was the so called dark side that had treated him like a human being instead of some tool that happened to be useful to them?

He would be willing to go against Voldemort the day that he decided to return to the Dursleys.

At the same time Harry could see what Neville was trying to do. After all, the thought of going against the Dark Lord, when knowing that others had tried and failed, would be frightening for anyone.

"While Harry's visions are indeed useful in this war, I am sorry to say that it is clear to me which one of you the prophecy is speaking about. Knowledge about the future will not lead to the defeat of the darkest lord since Grindelwald. But Voldemort grew up in the muggleworld, and despite the dislike he holds for them, it's likely that he has kept track on their development. Therefore Harry would have no advantage against Voldemort, whereas you on the other hand have something that will lead to his defeat."

At that Harry froze, staring wide eyed at Dumbledore, not wanting to believe what he was hearing, but the leader of the Order of the Phoenix seemed rather serious. Letting his gaze turn to Neville Harry frowned, what exactly did Neville have that could possible lead to Voldemort's defeat?

Apparently Harry wasn't the only one thinking so.

"But sir, I can't defeat You Know Who. I'm not even old enough to use my wand without the Ministry being alerted, and yet you expect me to beat someone who is a master in magic! And I have no mark!" Neville said, panic seeped into his every word as he started hyperventilating.

Harry felt a pang of sympathy for Neville, seeing as the other was most likely right. Even with a prophecy claiming that he might be the one able to defeat Voldemort, though it could go the other way just as easily, it was unlikely that a clash between them would turn out in Neville's favour. Voldemort was ruthless, decades older, though not looking that part, and had spent those years wisely. After all, most didn't seize control over a country by pure luck.

"He didn't give you a visible mark, but by sending his Death Eaters after your parents and torturing them, Voldemort made it clear that he viewed you as a threat. And while Voldemort may have the advantage in magical knowledge and power, you have something, my boy, that can ensure the victory in this war, as I previously mentioned."

Before Dumbledore could say more, the phoenix began making high pitched tones that seemed to stab his eardrums with sharp needless.

He sank down on one knee with his ears covered by his hands, glaring at the bird who, to his surprise, returned the look and started on the tones again, this time louder than the last time, drowning out any other sound that had been in the tent.

With ringing ears Harry blinked and found himself in the room, staring up in Voldemort's face. Yelping in surprised Harry attempted to scramble away only to find himself pinned down with a hand sprawled out on his chest. As the ringing slowly dimmed to finally disappear and Harry calmed his hectic breath, he took in the situation.

He was still on the couch he'd been reading on, but the book was nowhere in sight. Harry guessed that he had dropped it during the vision. He assumed that it was around the same time that he had somehow ended with his head in Voldemort's lap.

And the hand placed in the middle of his chest was a clear hint that Harry wouldn't be moving anytime soon. Not that he really minded. Right now he wasn't sure that the ringing wouldn't return the moment he attempted to move.

"_You were unrestful during your vision_." Blinking seemed to be the only action Harry was able to produce while his brain tried to figure out what the man meant. His confusion must have been mirrored on his face since Voldemort deemed it necessary to elaborate. "_You screamed. It does not seem like something that would usually happen, and it hints that something went against the norm in your vision_."

It at least explained why his throat felt so strange. Though compared to the ringing that had been in his ears, Harry found it hard to feel concerned, but maybe the two had been connected?

For some moments, Harry simply laid where he was, looking past Voldemort as he tried to make sense of what he had seen.

It wasn't that confusing, but all the information that had been given to him seemed to take a while for his brain to sort through, and he didn't want to risk forgetting something when he decided to report what he had seen to Voldemort as the man was clearly expecting him to.

Besides, Harry could freely admit to himself that he rather enjoyed the position he was in. Normally when he had a vision, he was left alone or moved into a more comfortable position. It was rarely that people continued touching him even after he'd had the vision.

But had he only been screaming, or had there been more done during his vision? And was it somehow connected to the noises the phoenix had been making? Since he needed a repeat of the actions to gain the knowledge if those things were tied together somehow, Harry decided that he could live without knowing if it meant that he wouldn't have to go through it again.

Fingers started running through his hair, and Harry wondered when his braid had been undone.

"_Did you know that there is a prophecy about you_?" He finally asked. When the fingers stopped their movements, Harry cracked an eye open with a not so subtle glare at Voldemort. The look he got in return was enough to convince Harry that it would be in his best interest to continue talking. "_It's an old one, made before I was born, so you should already know it_." After all, Voldemort had access to the Ministry of Magic, and Harry knew that they had a tendency to store away all prophecies that had been overheard, even after they had been fulfilled.

It made Harry wonder if the kind of visions he got also showed up in the halls, or if it was only the spoken prophecies that popped up there.

The fingers returned to their previous task and Harry bit back a low moan as nail dug into his skin. Getting the message, Harry carried on, feeling relaxed as he lay like that. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies, and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not, and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives, the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies. A really annoying prophecy, but the best part is that Dumbledore seems to believe that Neville is the one the prophecy is speaking about."

Harry really didn't want to get Neville involved further into this mess than what Dumbledore already had attempted to. From what he'd seen Neville hadn't outgrown his gentle persona. But he was bound to tell about his visions unless he wanted the magic from when he'd made the deal with Voldemort to turn against him.

Again the fingers stopped their massage and Harry opened his eyes, figuring that he might as well rapport the whole thing, hoping that it would make Voldemort resume his work. It was almost like reporting to Severus, only his guardian didn't have magical fingers that seemed capable to turn him into mush.

Seeing the dark expression that had appeared on Voldemort's face at his words, Harry felt the need to calm down the man, if nothing else then to stop the man from running out and take Neville's life right away. "I think it's best if I start with the beginning."

With those words, Harry threw himself into a detailed resume of what he had encountered in his vision, even the strange thing that the phoenix seemed to know that he had been there, though it technically shouldn't have been possible, seeing as it had yet not happened, and had somehow managed to force Harry out of the vision before Harry had been able to hear what Dumbledore believed should be able to help Neville to fulfil the prophecy.

For a long time after that, Voldemort was silent, his eyes fixed on a spot on the others side of the room. Harry's wasn't quite sure about what was running through the man's head at the current moment but he doubted very much that it was something pleasant, such as rainbows and unicorns.

"_Phoenixes are the single creatures that are not controlled by time. They die and are reborn in an endless circle. It would certainly not surprise me, if they of all beings, would be able to interference with time since they are not working under the same laws as the rest of us_." Voldemort sounded like he was speaking mostly to himself, but Harry listened eagerly to each words that passed over the man's lips.

Hopefully he would avoid further visions where a phoenix was involved; he would prefer not to have a repeat of what had happened this time.

"_For what it's worth, I think that the so-called prophecy is balls. I mean, look at me, I am a walking proof that the future is not set in stones, it is our own and other people's actions that determine whether or not something will happen. And since that is the case with my visions, I'll make a shoot and say that it probably also means that a prophecy doesn't necessarily means that something is bound to happen. It all comes up to the people that are involved in it, whether or not they believe in some words that can have multiply meanings_." Harry said with a determine nod.

At least he hoped that it was the case. Harry had seen plenty of times where his actions could either lead to what he had seen in his visions or avoid the result entirely.

It really was fifty, fifty, so he wasn't quite sure about what was best.

But he hoped that not the whole future and just parts of it was set in stones. If that was the case, what he had seen might not be fulfilled and he would be able to live until he was one hundred and fifty, if he managed to stay alive for so long.

Deep down Harry had a feeling that his visions about the Veil were one of those that were unchangeable, but that might just be him being morbid.

Feeling like he owed it to Neville to try and make sure that Voldemort didn't go out of his way to kill the other teen, Harry decided to attempt again. "_And Dumbledore's arguments were rather weak_." After all, how many times had Voldemort not sent his Death Eaters out to take care of some rebels or another where the child or some other relative had survived?

"_You sound rather adamant in protecting Longbottom, is there a reason for this_?"

Harry paused, gnawing at his lower lips while he contemplated on how to continue. "_Yeah_." He admitted, clearing his throat. "_I knew Neville from my time with the rebels. He's the kind of guy who would rather play with his plants than rough housing with the other kids. I got to know him while I was still allowed to be with the other children. They were rather wild and liked to fight, so I couldn't be convinced to get within reach of them. Instead I sought out the only other quiet kid I could find, since I was forced to interact, and that happened to be Neville_."

Harry smiled at the memory. He still remembered the chubby build child with dirt under his nails that could talk about different plants for hours. Because of Harry's experience with his Aunt's muggle garden, they had been able to talk for quite a few hours when they were allowed to.

It was strange to think about Neville after so many years. After leaving the Order Harry had done his best to banish the memories from his mind, both the bad and the good ones.

Realising what position he was in, and just how close he was to a certain part of Voldemort's anatomy, Harry sat up, his back to Voldemort, and his blush shielded from view. He winced as the fingers in his hair didn't follow the move, almost as a thoughtless attempt to keep him where he was, and a few stands of hairs were loosened. "_What will you do now_?" He found himself asking. Until now Voldemort had acted swiftly upon the visions Harry had had. It felt unreal to know that the man was just sitting behind him, doing nothing at all.

"_Lucius will entertain you until you decide to retire for the evening, and Nagini will be here too. There are certain things at the Ministry I have to check upon_." Hearing where Voldemort would head, Harry closed his mouth. Suddenly it didn't seem so bad to be left behind now where he knew what the alternative was.

"_I don't need a minder_." He protested, shifting to look at Voldemort who rose.

Magic straightened his robes so it didn't look like he'd been wearing them the whole day. "_You have managed to stay out of troubles for the last few days, mainly because you have not left my side for other than bathroom visits and sleep. So be good and I might consider you to go without supervision the next time this happens_." The man said, petting him on top of his head, like he was a mindless pet, or a stubborn child, and then he was gone.

Sighing Harry leaned forward. "_What ails you, hatchling_?" Nagini hissed, wrapping herself around his body, leaving him with little space to move.

Shifting slightly as he leaned back so he wasn't squeezing the big reptile Harry enjoyed the comfort the strange hug gave him. "_It is not important_." He mumbled, trying to get some order in his muddled thoughts.

It seemed like Voldemort had known of the prophecy before Harry told him. The lack of surprise or any other reaction had been rather telling. After all, it wasn't everyday that you got to know that someone held the power to defeat you.

Did Voldemort know before now that Neville and him apparently had been the candidates to the prophecy? If so, Harry didn't understand why he was still alive. If he had been in Voldemort's shoes, he would have eliminated any threats already.

Could it be that Voldemort simple wrote him off because of his lack of magic?

Somehow Harry doubted that he could side with Voldemort and Dumbledore in this. As the rebel had pointed out, Voldemort had a vast knowledge about magic, so it wouldn't be that that could possible end his regime.

It didn't matter. The prophecy wasn't about him, and therefore he wouldn't act on it.

But why did Harry had a feeling that no one would listen to him when he suggested that the future was not set in stones, despite how many times he had already proved this?

Perhaps he would have to see what exactly he could do to avoid the fate that the so called prophecy had set.

**Next: Severus returns and we get to meet the last living Marauder. **


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

"My Lord." The dark clad Potions master dipped his head in respect as he stepped inside the room. In all the time he had known Severus, he had rarely seen the other bow to anyone, and it was just as well. Because instead of making it an act of respect, Severus made it seem like he was merely humouring an annoying child.

Placing the quill aside Voldemort decided to acknowledge the other's presence seeing as he currently found it rather troublesome to get something off hand. "I trust that your mission was a success." He asked though already knowing the answer to the question. But if he immediately jumped to the subject on his mind, Severus would clamp up, being more uncooperative than he was ought to be.

"Of course, my Lord. As the missives I sent you told, the giants have been reminded who they swore loyalty to, and they will not be interested in the offers that Dumbledore makes his followers approach them with, so it can be considered a success. As well as the other mission I suddenly found myself with when I had accomplished the first one."

Severus was fishing for answers, being subtle but still clear about what he wanted. Voldemort knew that his Potions master had to be confused. After all he had long since risen over the ranks of those followers Voldemort sent off on a task for little other reason than to his own amusement. The last task had been too obvious. He had no use of the leaves of a blue fire lily. But it grew in a magic resistant area much like that of the giants, meaning that Severus had had to use time on travelling and locating the flower.

Time he had used to bind Harry to him.

Only those ties were far from as strong as he had hoped that they would be at this point. In fact, after the whole incident with the quarter Veela and the near drowning experience, Harry seemed to have withdrawn. The seer had still stayed by his side, spending the time he insisted with him, but he was tense, as if he expected to be hit or something unpleasant to happen.

But Voldemort had seen him watching him, though he had refrained from calling Harry out on it. The deal between them forced Harry to tell about any visions he had, so whatever was bothering his seer, it couldn't be a vision or he would already know about it.

"My Lord, has Harry behaved while he was with you?" the concern for his charge was clear in Severus' voice. Normally the Potions master was hard to read. The only time he could recall seeing any real concern was after Harry and the Malfoy heir had been rescued from the rebels. Severus was a man who could not stand doing nothing. Being unable to help while Harry had been unconscious in the Hospital Wing had driven Severus up the walls in a way Voldemort had not had the joy of observing before.

"How loyal would you say that Harry is?" He instead asked, ignoring the question. Severus would get to see Harry soon enough. He would leave it to the seer to explain to Severus what had happened in his absence.

Severus' face was impassively as he thought over the question. "While I am unaware of most of the details of his stay with the Order, I can say that Harry will never willingly return to Dumbledore's side. But I believe that while he has no warm feelings towards the rebels, he will not pick a side in something he believes has nothing to do with him. But he will continue to do his best to ensure that those he cares about are not harmed." Severus felt silent after that, as if waiting for a response from him.

At first Voldemort did not bother to speak, resting his chin on his folded fingers.

He was well aware that he needed something to make sure that Harry would stay when the deal ended. Not only for the sake of continual knowledge about the future, but he had found that he had grown to desire the youth despite his tendencies to get himself into trouble.

"Severus, I have one last task for you to perform before you are allowed to rest." The slight stiffening in his shoulders were the only sign of weariness that Severus allowed to slip out. Undoubtedly he was already imagining whatever else meaningless mission he could possible be sent on. "When you see Harry afterwards, I do not care what method you chose to use, but you will find a way to persuade him to stay in the room I have selected for him." Confusion briefly dashed over Severus' face before it was gone again.

"May I ask what your intentions for my charge is, my Lord?" Clearly Severus did not like being out of the loop about things.

"Carefully Severus, you are overstepping your boundaries. But Harry will still be able to perform his duties as your assistant and I will not harm him, unless that is what he wishes for." Normally he would not allow people to question him unless they had a reason for it. But it was such a bother to find a new Potions master with Severus' level of skills and as had been pointed out, he was Harry's guardian and his little seer seemed to be rather happy with the man. So he allowed Severus more than he perhaps usually would have been lenient to do.

Black eyes were glancing intently at him, but Severus knew better than to try and use Legilimency on him. Anyone stupid enough to attempt using the mind arts against him would learn that he was a master in it. Those few who had dared in the past and had not been lucky to be killed were forever prisoners in their own minds.

"You are dismissed, Severus, but I expect Harry to be in his room by nightfall." He did not bother to say what would happen if that was not the case. Severus knew better than to disappoint him.

Severus dipped his head. "Of course, my Lord." Was all he said before leaving with a swirl of dark robes. Voldemort almost pitied the students Severus would meet on his way. The Potions master was in a foul mood and the first one he ran into would suffer the brunt of it.

His thoughts wandered away from an annoyed Potions master and back to more pressing matters.

He had known of the prophecy since it was first registered in the Hall of prophecies. Back then there had only been his name seeing as the other person the prophecy had been unknown.

But when he had gone to the Ministry to check up on the prophecy, and to punish whatever immiscible responsible for not reporting to him in case that something happened, he found that everything was exactly like the last time he had bothered to check up on the prophecy. Right down to the question mark next to his name on the plate under the small glass globe.

Was Dumbledore really so desperate that he was willing to appoint a random boy to keep up the hope among his troops?

But perhaps the choice had not been so random as he first had been inclined to believe. The candidates had been limited from the very beginning, and it had quickly dwindled down to only two possibilities.

Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom.

Like Dumbledore, loathe as he was to admit it, Voldemort found himself believing more that the latter of the two was the one the prophecy spoke of, but for whole other reasons than Dumbledore. He had survived the Second World War in his childhood and knew first hand how dangerous people without magic could be.

No, Harry might not be loyal to him, but several of those his seer cared about were. And as long as those were treated as they deserved Harry would have little reason to act on the prophecy the youth already seemed inclined in not believing in.

However, that still left him with the problem with the Longbottom boy. Now, where his mind was set, Dumbledore would train the boy for the task before him.

Though he knew next to nothing about Harry's stay with the rebels, despite his own attempts for it to be otherwise, last evening had been revealing. While Harry clearly loathed the Order and what they had put him through, he still seemed to have some warm feeling for a few individuals, the Longbottom heir included.

For now Voldemort supposed that he would simply watch how things unfolded and then make his decision from there. He would not act like a Gryffindor and rush head first into trouble. That would only create more trouble than good. For all he knew such actions would lead to him living the next decade as a mere spirit, possessing animals and weak wizards to survive.

Instead he would focus his attention on more current problems. Such as how he would ensure that Harry stayed with him in case that Severus' plan would not work.

**)00(**

"You need to keep a tighter grip, Harry. It is not like it will hurt you to do so." Draco instructed, helping Harry's finger into a position where he felt like he was attempting to strangle the hard staff. "Trust me on this. I've been doing this for ages and if anyone can teach you how it's done, it's me." If Draco wasn't careful his ego might be too big to fit through the door when they had to go inside again.

"The last time you said so, we ended scraping yellow goo off the walls for hours." Harry said, wrinkling his nose in remenbrance of the smell.

Harry would have said more, but he was currently too focussed to keep his hands in position as Draco let go of him. It was rather uncomfortable and he wondered how anyone could do it like this. "And now you kick off. Gently, okay? It would be a pity if you managed to break your neck in your first attempt."

"Just so you know it, if you are trying to calm me, it's not working." Despite his words, Harry kicked off so he was a few feet above the ground.

For a few moments Harry barely dared to breathe, mostly focussing on the sensation of being on a broom and not having anyone on it with him.

Seeing that he wasn't about to fall off the broom right away, Draco ascended his Firebolt and let himself hover on the same level as Harry. "Okay, let us take a round around the pitch. We'll take it nice and slow, so you can get used to this." Draco said, gesturing for Harry to turn the broom so they could begin.

They hadn't flown for long before Harry began to feel that he had gotten the hang of this. Glancing back at Draco he noticed that his friend was watching him like a hawk. Probably worried about what would happen if Harry fell off the broom.

A grin was the only warning Harry bothered to give Draco before he set off. The Nimbus 2000 might not be much compared to the one Draco rode, but he wanted to see what the broom was made of. Behind him Harry could hear swear words before Draco followed him.

"Scarhead, get back here!" Draco's voice gained a rather shrill tone when Harry pulled his broom upwards, intending to see how far up he could get on this broom.

A green and blond blur passed him and Harry had to jerk the borrowed broom to the side to avoid a collision with Draco, who was now in front of him, looking angry.

Instead of letting it stop him, Harry made the broom roll sideways, ignoring the panicked expression on Draco's face, instead he gave into the thrill flying gave him. The one tour he'd had with Draco so long ago was nothing compared to this.

Laughter bubbled in his chest as Harry led Draco on a merry chase around the pitch. While Draco had the better broom, thus more speed, and was more experienced, Harry found it fun to evade being caught by using some of the tricks that Draco had so often told him about.

Looking behind him Harry saw Draco much closer than he'd originally thought. Not much closer and Draco would be able to grab the end of the broom. When their eyes met, Harry's face nearly split into a grin that Draco by now should have learned meant nothing good.

Just as Draco reached out to grab the broom, and undoubtedly force him to halt, Harry pulled into a dive.

His heart was up in his throat as the ground neared. Harry wasn't even sure if he was laughing anymore as the only thing he could hear was the howling wind that consumed all other sounds he knew were supposed to be there, and the colours were a blur, bleeding together until he was no longer sure what was what.

Seeing the ground come dangerously close, Harry changed his grip from what Draco had shown him to what he felt more comfortable with before using his weight to pull up.

The broom reacted without a moment of hesitation. Instead of a crash and a horrible pain as he had expected for a short moment, only the tip of his shoes brushed against the green grass and Harry allowed himself to let out a breath he did not even now he had been holding.

It had been a little too close, but rather existing. His heart was beating hard against his ribs while Harry wondered if he would be just as successful if he attempted it again. The best part was that he wouldn't get in trouble for this. Draco was a big Quidditch fanatic, and would understand that he had felt the need to test the broom's limit.

"Get down." The words were followed without a second thought. Harry was used to obey it when it shot out warning in the Potions laboratory and now it was an instinctive thing for him to do.

As soon as his feet were solid planted on the ground, a hand closed around his arm and yanked him off the broom and he was brought face to face with someone who looked about ready to skin him alive. "Of all the fool headed things I have ever watched you do, this has to be in the top. Explain to me, what exactly you thought when you decided to pull a stunt that could very well have ended with a broken neck. Do you live to give me grey hairs?" Standing shell shocked Harry let the angry words wash over him.

Severus hadn't changed much since Harry had last seen the man at the Ministry ball. He had gained a slight tan, something Harry hadn't expected seeing that the giants didn't live in a sunny place. Where had Severus been?

Severus had fallen silent, clearly waiting for some kind of explanation from Harry. He looked ready to rip out someone's spine and use it as a potion's ingredient if something wasn't done.

Harry brought them closer with a step and wrapped his arms around the livid Severus. "It's good to have you back." He mumbled, burying his face in Severus' chest. There was no doubt in his mind that Severus had heard him when Harry felt a pair of arms close around him, returning the hug.

All too soon in Harry's opinion, Severus broke off the hug. The man was holding him a little away from him, so he could give him a one over before looking him in the eyes, probably ready to scold his charge. But before Severus could open his mouth, he was interrupted by his godson.

"Uncle Sev, you are back." Severus let go of him at the greeting. Draco was back on the ground, holding both broom and looked a little winded after the chase. The blond sent a brief glare in Harry's direction, before turning his attention back to Severus.

"How many times have I told you to use my proper name, Dragon?" Now it was Draco's turn to look flushed, hearing a name from his childhood he had hoped that would have been forgotten.

"If you insist on acting like a child, then you will be treated as such. Now explain what you were thinking when you planned this event. Your magic had a high chance of intervening if something put you at a risk, Dragon. But Harry would not have been so lucky if he had fallen from the broom during those stunts!" By now Harry was thankful that there was no one but the three of them on the pitch. Both for his own, but definitely also for Draco's own sake.

Straightening his back, Harry caught Severus' gaze and held it. "Draco just wanted to teach me the first steps in how to fly on a broom. It's actually the only form of magically travel that doesn't make me feel sick to the bone. It was my own idea to do those things I might not have been ready for. Draco tried to stop me." It might be a Gryffindor thing to do, but Harry wasn't about to let Draco take the blame. And this way, he might be allowed to fly again another time.

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out a huff of air. When he looked at the two boys again, he seemed visibly calmer, much to Harry's relief. "The next time you decided to do something like this, have someone else with you who will be able to intervene if something happens." Careful not to show it, Harry was mentally doing a victory dance inside his head. In his own roundabout way, Severus had just given permission that Harry could go flying again at another time.

Coal coloured eyes landed on Draco. "Curfew is in fifteen minutes. Get moving or I will be forced to take points." The man barked at his godson. Draco's eyes widened, knowing that Severus wasn't kidding, and hurried past them.

Harry watched as Draco disappeared inside through the double door. "So, how did your trip go?" Harry asked, not sure how much of an answer he would be able to gather. After all, Severus was rarely able to share many details about his travels.

"It was blessed peacefully." So he hadn't run into any Order members, much to Harry's relief. "There was a great variety in the weather." Meaning that he hadn't only been among the giants, which made Harry ponder on what other mission Severus could possibly have been sent onto. "And no one was hurt." Apparently this was one of the few times that Severus was able to tell him absolutely nothing.

One thing was clear, whatever had happened while Severus was gone ,it had certainly left the man in a bad mood as he started stomping back towards Hogwarts, forcing Harry to run after him so he wasn't left behind. "I dare to say that it will be a while before I am sent off again."

At the last part Harry lit up in a bright smile. "Good, then I will move back tonight." Was it just his imagination, or did Severus stiffen when he said that? Harry decided to write it off as nothing. Severus was probably just tired after having travelled for so long.

"Did you enjoy your stay with the Dark Lord?" Harry tilted his head forward to let his hair hide the blush that decorated his face.

They went inside through the same doors Draco had used. Because of how close it was to curfew, there was probably not a living soul out oi the corridors. "It was different." That was the best way he could describe how his stay with Voldemort had went. Harry knew that he wouldn't be able to hide from Severus exactly what had happened, but if he dragged it out long enough, he might not have to deal with the consequences he knew would follow.

He preferred not even to think about the feelings he had for Voldemort. Perhaps some distance would help to cool them down.

"Would you like to stay with him in the future?"

The almost quiet question made Harry freeze midstep, staring at Severus who was standing with his back turned towards him. "Why would I want that?" Harry asked, staring intently at the back of Severus' head.

"It would do you good with a change. In a few months you will be of age. You cannot honestly expect that you will stay with me for the rest of your life. One day or another you will have to find a place of your own. I suggest that you start sooner." Harry felt like he had been punched in the gut as Severus spoke. To make it even worse, Severus was still refusing to look at him.

Harry knew very well that he couldn't stay with Severus for the rest of his life. But this wasn't something they had discussed before and Harry hadn't been prepared to have it bombed on him like this. Something had to have happened to trigger such a reaction from Severus. "If this is about me flying, then I'm sorry, okay? I promise that I won't touch a broom again, please." Panic tinged his voice as Severus didn't move. The man stood stiff and was looking straight forward, effectively ignoring Harry's every word, as if they meant nothing.

"Severus." Harry stopped himself from saying more, realising that he was begging. Forcing himself to take a deep breath, Harry stared at Severus, who stood half hidden in the shadows. Severus hadn't even moved since they came to stop here. If not because he was standing in the middle of a hallway, the man could easily be mistaken for one of the gargoyles that decorated the school.

Possibilities of what might have caused this were running through his mind. Severus was too cautions to be under the influence of a potion or a hex. And Fleur wasn't around. Not that Harry could see how throwing him out would help Severus to win the quarter Veela over.

His shoulders hunched as Harry took a step away from Severus. "As you want." He didn't bother to hear what else Severus had to say to him. Luckily they were close to the dungeon and Harry knew these parts like his own pocket. He slipped through the entrance to one of the hidden corridors, quickly disappearing from view.

But he didn't head for the sanctuary of Severus' quartersor the room Voldemort had provided him with. And he couldn't go to Myrtle as Voldemort now knew about the place. And though it might be a tad paranoid he feared that he might somehow find himself in for a second trip to the Chamber of Secrets.

Knowing his luck, it would happen.

So he headed for a place where he knew he would be welcomed and where people wouldn't think of looking for him right away.

**)00(**

Hearing the hurried footsteps carrying the feet's owner away, Severus kept his back stiff. He couldn't allow Harry to see how jarred he felt in case that his charge looked back.

He knew that he probably shouldn't have snapped at Harry, and neither should he have been so blunt about the whole thing. Though his brat had changed a great deal since the night where he had nearly stumbled over the boy, Harry was still an insecure brat.

It wouldn't surprise Severus if his brat really believed that he had been thrown out because of some silly little mistake he believed he had made.

But after travelling for so long and the orders from his Lord, Severus just could not find the energy to go looking for his brat. And if Harry wanted to hide, he would make it so that no one would be able to track him down.

Unless the Lord was involved, which Severus preferred to postpone for as long as possible, Harry would be more reasonable once he had time to cool down, and perhaps he needed to do so as well.

The corners of Severus' lips twisted at the sight he had walked upon when he had been searching for his brat.

He had not announced his presence upon his arrival on the Quidditch pitch, opting to watch from his hiding place for a little while.

It had to be the first time his charge had ever been on a broom; previously the brat had shown zero interest in any kind of magical form of travelling. Considering how big a Quidditch talent the late James Potter had been, it had been to Severus' big relief that his son showed the same talent.

But Harry had made it look like he was riding on air instead of using a broom. It was a talent that could not be taught but one had to be born with it.

But that was not why he had decided to ignore all logic when he had decided to allow Harry to fly on a broom on a later date.

Harry's laughter and the way his eyes shone when he landed the broom had nearly stolen his breath. It was the same light Harry had in his eyes when he completed a new potion.

So, despite the resemblance of his childhood Severus had allowed Harry to fly again, to see him happy and also because he had hoped that his brat would not react like this when he told him about having to stay with Voldemort.

He needed a strong drink, and tomorrow, after a hangover Potion, he would attempt to mend what damage that had been done.

**Okay, not my longest chapter, but I feel like a great deal happened. Sorry about not having included Remus, but he will show up in next chapter... I think.**

**Anyway, the reason for this quick update is because someone pointed out I had forgotten to recommend any stories in last chapter, so here they are.**

**Elsewhere, but not Elsewhen by The Mad Mad Reviewer**

**The Snake and the Spider by Rain seaker**

**Black Scales by Martesh**

**Until next time. **


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

Morning came much too soon for Harry's liking.

Logically he knew that the sun could have moved underground and yet, he could still feel its hot rays on his face, forcing him out of his state of sleep, and Harry wanted to curse magic's existence.

Someone was in the bed with him. Someone who had draped an arm and a leg over him, and this time Harry was sure that it was not Nagini's big body, hugging him firmly against the body behind him.

Despite the oddities Harry had no intention of getting out of bed just yet. Whatever had caused this strangeness could wait for a few more hours before he felt like getting up and investigating.

Right now he was content to go back to sleep.

Something flashed on the other side of his closed eyelids. Harry went from comfortably half asleep to prepared for an incoming attack. He gripped the arm that had previously been resting peacefully on his hip and rolled around, bringing the body in front of himself to shield him from an attack.

But the bed he was on was not as wide as Harry first had thought, and instead of now having the body before him, he felt it starting to fall. But the body's owner had a mind of their own, and a hand closed around his wrist, pulling him along in the fall. Having been tangled up in the cover, Harry took it down with him.

He landed in a tangle of limbs and covers on the floor, Harry somehow ending under the other person, though he was by no way sure how it had happened.

Far from awake Harry cracked an eye open.

It took him a moment to realise that he wasn't in his room in Severus' quarters, which certainly explained the shifting he had registered while not being fully awake.

And he remembered the reason to why he was in neither of his rooms.

"Draco got extra limbs in the night! Is that what my mother meant when she said that I had to eat my vegetables if I wanted to grow?" That was definitely Vincent's voice, meaning that he wasn't in any danger as he first had believed.

Harry let the back of his head meet the carpet covered floor, ignoring the elbows and knees that connected with various parts of his body as Draco fought to free himself from their fabric made prison.

Too tired to come up with an explanation to his presence Harry pulled the cover up over his head. It wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep, but as he was too tired to move, it would have to make do.

Harry's plans about getting back to sleep were ended when someone yanked the cover off him, leaving him squinting in the sudden light. "Seriously, Scarhead, when did you come and why were you in my bed?" Harry blinked a few times, staring at Draco, who was standing at his feet, with the cover in his hands. He tried to calculate the chance of success if he attempted to reclaim the cover.

As if sensing where his thoughts were heading, Draco threw the cover at Blaise, who grabbed it without looking up, holding a camera in his other hand.

That explained where the flashes had come from, though the knowledge didn't offer him much comfort. He intended to snatch the camera at the first given chance.

Theo was sitting cross-legged on his bed, a book balancing on his knees. Gregory and Vincent were watching him with curious eyes as if he was a problem they had to solve, or a new cake they wanted to taste.

"I needed somewhere to sleep." He said with a shrug before allowing a small grin to slip onto his face. "But if I had known that you kicked in your sleep, I would have found somewhere else to sleep."

Draco looked gross. "I will let you know that Malfoys are perfect in anything we do. I do not kick in my sleep!" Harry was not the only one who found it hard not to laugh when Draco followed his statement with stamping his foot on the floor.

Harry nodded, not even trying to look convinced. "Sure, good luck with explaining to Astoria why she wakes up black and blue after sharing a bed with you." The way Draco spluttered, not able to form a proper retort was enough to make Harry feel in a good mood.

"But, you still haven't explained what you are doing here. Draco informed us last night that Severus had returned. And even if you were not staying with him, the Dark Lord has provided you with a room to use." Harry found himself scowling at Theo.

Realising how ridiculous he looked sprawled out on the floor, Harry moved swiftly back on his feet. He let tried to straight out the wrinkles in his clothes with his hands. It really didn't matter. The outer robe he had shred yesterday would hide the rumbled fabric until he could get a fresh change of clothes.

But before he could put on the robe, Draco snatched the clothes away and held it out of his reach. "Don't tell me that you intend to wear the same clothes for two days." Draco said, not even trying to hide his disgust.

Crossing his arms, Harry met Draco's gaze head on. "Well, it's not like I brought extra clothes with me, and I'm not walking around naked!" Harry was thankful that his hair hid his burning ears.

"Of course not, Scarhead, what kind of friend would I be if I allowed that? Theo, take Vincent and Gregory to the Great Hall, we all know what happens when they miss a meal, I don't want a repeat of last time. Blaise, get Pansy, I will need help." Draco had the room cleared in seconds and once the last one had left, he closed the door and faced Harry full on. "Now, Harry, tell me what you are doing here." The blond demanded, ensuring that no one would be able to listen in on them by casting a silencing charm on the door.

Sighing Harry sank down on the edge of the bed, cradling his head between his hands. "I think that Severus threw me out last night. I might have brought up some bad memories. I shouldn't have said yes to flying, it must have reminded him of James. And who wants to remember school bullies?" He ran his hands through his hair, only to yank harshly at it. He couldn't believe that he might have lost the only home he knew because of some stupid mistake.

His hands were captured before he could attempt to yank out hair. Surprised Harry looked up at Draco, who was watching him with a grave expression. "Now you listen here, Scarhead, because I'm only saying this once." When Harry looked away, Draco grabbed his chin and forced him to look back at him."Severus is my godfather, and as such I should be the one he cares most about. But!" Draco said, stopping Harry from protesting. "When we were small and I demanded that he put you back to where you came from, Severus told me that you had come to stay and nothing would ever be able to change that for as long as he was there. And if there is something I know, it is that Sev always keeps his word."

Harry pulled away the best he could in his current position, and this time Draco let him.

What Draco had said made sense. Severus had went against several powerful people and taken risks to be able to keep him as an assistant, the only way he had been able to stay at Hogwarts as he was not a student of the school.

And Severus had promised that he would not have to leave as long as he wanted to stay. And the man had made an effort of never going back on anything he had promised. Especially in the start, where Harry still had to learn to trust him.

That meant that something, or rather someone, had forced Severus' hand.

And Harry could only think of one person who would be able to do that.

"I need to speak with Voldemort!" Harry attempted to stand, but a hand on his chest sent him back into a seated position.

"You are not going anywhere before I am done with you. Now that we've cleared your emotional instability, we need you to stop looking like a wreck." Draco said, only turning his face half away when the door opened, revealing a fully dressed Pansy.

"I hope that you have a good reason to call for me this early. Do you know how much work it takes to get those curls right? This better be important or I will make you our pack mule the next time we girls have an outing to Hogsmeade." Harry didn't feel the slightest bit of sympathy when Draco winced at Pansy's threat.

The blond waved her words away. "We need to prepare Harry for the day. I'm the one closest to his size, but as you probably already have noticed, our colours are entirely too different. If this is not done carefully, we will end up with a fashion catastrophe!" The witch nodded calmly and stepped inside, watching Harry with a critical eye.

"I see what you mean, Draco. I will need to take a look at your wardrobe. And perhaps we should combine it with something of Blaise's. In fact, I think that it might be a better idea." As she spoke, Pansy was already moving over to the wardrobe by the bed Harry had seen Blaise sleep in last night.

"Really, it isn't necessary. If I can just get my robe back, we can all get on with our day." Harry said, but he did not move from his spot on the bed. The glares sent in his direction by both, Draco and Pansy, were rather convincing to make him stay in place for now.

So, he was silent as the two purebloods pulled one article of fabric out after another, most of them were disregarded without as much as a glance, while a small amount ended in a pile of their own.

Harry watched the air as they discussed clothes in a speed to rapid for him to follow, and they continued disregarding clothes until they were each left with a pair. "Draco, you can't expect him to wear those. Frost blue and grey doesn't suit him. Honestly, I don't think that anyone but a born Malfoy would be able to wear them." Pansy proclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air to emphasize her point.

However, Draco didn't look like he was going to be moved anytime soon. "Harry is as good as an honourable Malfoy, so I don't see why he can't wear my family colours. Besides, you are making him wear summer colours, as if that is any better. We are still in the spring, besides that red vest makes him look like a Gryffindor, or even worse, a Weasel!" Draco's lips pulled into a sneer at his own version of one of the more known rebel families. Harry rolled his eyes. While he didn't have any fond feelings for that family, even he could grow tired of listening to Draco when he went off on that topic.

"Guys?" He tried, but neither Draco nor Pansy as much as glanced in his direction. Shaking his head Harry stood and walked out. If they wanted to waste their time discussing such a silly thing as clothes, he might as well leave. The sooner he tracked down Voldemort, the sooner he would be able to get some order in this chaos.

In the common room Harry found Blaise waiting for them to come down, longing on a couch. He grimaced when the Italian looked up. "Your finance and Draco are absolutely nuts. I just thought you should know it." The sound of Blaise's laughter followed him a long way after he had left the common room, intending to hunt down a Dark Lord.

Surprisingly enough it wasn't Harry who found Voldemort.

When he passed a darkened side corridor a hand shot out from the shadows, closing around his arm and yanking him back to where it had originated from.

A choked sound escaped him when Harry found himself pressed up against a wall with a body pressing full length against him from behind. He placed the palms of his hands against the wall and tried to push away, but the body behind him didn't bulge. "_Explain to me, my little seer, why you found it necessary to spend the night in the Slytherin sixth year dorm_!"

While a part of Harry felt relief in the knowledge of who his attacker was, it was nowhere big enough to lessen his growing temper. "_Don't' call me by that blasted nickname, it isn't my fault that your ancestors decided to mix with giants. And I would have slept in my own bed if not because someone apparently found it necessary to force my guardian to throw me out_!"

Belated Harry realised that he might have overstepped a line. But when he was turned around, before once again being pressed up against the wall, now with his back facing the wall and locked eyes with Voldemort, Harry knew that Draco had been right. Severus hadn't asked him to leave on his own accord, and it was with no little relief that Harry came to that conclusion. Even with Draco being the voice of reason for once, Harry had not been fully able to dispel the fear.

"_Why do you have to be so difficult_?" Voldemort asked, his thumb brushing over Harry's bottom lip, making him shiver. It was only then that Harry realised that Voldemort was no longer holding him, and yet his toes were not even brushing against the floor. He was hold up against the wall by invisible bounds. Harry whined in the back of his throat in protests, hating the fact that he was helpless when Voldemort stepped closer, his chest against Harry's own.

"_So you finally realised? Hogwarts follows the commands of those she cares about. Old lore makes it clear that she is sentient after absorbing stray magic from the students through centuries. But if you had been anyone else, you would already have lost your tongue for your insolence_." Voldemort growled, leaning in so his breath was washing over Harry's ear before nipping it none too gently.

Harry yanked his head to the side, only half serious in his attempt to head butt Voldemort. "_Don't I feel special? But I wouldn't have had to stay with Draco, if you hadn't ordered Severus to throw me out_!" Harry countered, stilling when Voldemort's mouth moved from his ear down his neck, giving extra attention to each sensitive spot he met on his way. Now Harry regretted that he hadn't bothered to reclaim his outer robe, at least its high collar wouldn't have allowed Voldemort such an easy access.

When Voldemort's tongue flickered over a particularly sensitive spot Harry's breath sped up entirely against his will and he couldn't prevent himself from arching his neck towards the mouth.

As a result of Voldemort's ministrations Harry felt himself hardening in his pants. Voldemort shifted and when his body brushed against Harry half hardened cock, all thoughts about protesting fled from his mind.

It didn't help when Voldemort pressed a knee between his legs, forcing them apart and brushing against his groin.

A hand was entangled in his hair, keeping his head in place as Voldemort broke of the kisses and lifted his head enough to look him into the eye. "_If your guardian threw you out, then why did you not return to the room I had generously provided you with_?" If Harry had been Christian he would be fully convinced that Voldemort was related to the Devil - if not the Devil in person.

When Harry failed to produce an answer fast enough to satisfy the man, the hand tugged sharply on his hair, a clear warning that something unpleasant would happen if he didn't start speaking. "_Would you bloody stop that already_!?" Harry longed to use his hands to make Voldemort let go of him, but both were still glued to the wall behind him, entirely unable to move as much as an inch.

The red eyes narrowed dangerously, as if sensing what direction Harry's thoughts had taken.

"_Why should I go to you, when you took my home from me? Why would you even do that_?" Making it sound like he had been aware of it all the time, and not just this morning after Draco had pointed the oblivious signs out for him. "_You know, this is a little too much like when you cursed Draco. There was no reason for that. Are you trying to drive my family away from me? At this rate you might actually success_!"

Harry was far from finished with yelling at manipulative and uncooperative Dark Lords when a mouth pressed hard against his own, stealing his breath and words away. When Harry refused to open for the insisting tongue, teeth nipped his lips until he felt blood starting to run.

Not wanting to let Voldemort have the upper hand Harry opened his mouth to return the favour. Voldemort's tongue plunged in, encouraging his own to fight for dominance. A fight he was doomed to lose even before it had started.

Harry found himself growling when Voldemort too easily seemed to win that fight, using the hand in his hair to lessen Harry's range of movements drastically.

But the anger was replaced with a warmth when Voldemort grounded a knee against his groin. His hands, suddenly free from the wall, were on Voldemort's shoulders, though Harry was not sure when he had moved them there, using them to keep him steady.

Now, however, Harry pressed against Voldemort with his whole weight, breaking the kiss so he had a chance to breathe. "Stop... kissing me." He demanded, not quite sure what language he was speaking in and sounding far unsure than he liked to admit.

Voldemort was watching him through half lidded eyes. A look in them convinced Harry that it might be in his own best interest to simply run, not that he had the possibility to do so. "_Tell me, my little seer, is there anyone you have your eyes on_?" The man asked, leaning in to place a kiss on his lips. When Harry turned his face away Voldemort wasn't disencouraged. He let out a yelp when Voldemort instead buried his teeth none too gentle in his neck, tugging at the skin like a dog with a bone.

"Nope." He said, popping the p the way he knew that Severus abhorred.

But Voldemort didn't seem to be deterred as he moved his face so he was instead nuzzling Harry's neck. "_A person's body is better that any potion or spell when it comes to make them tell their deepest secrets. Your pulse sped up, a sure sign that you are lying to me. Such behaviour will have to be punished_."

When Voldemort bit down again on the same spot, Harry did nothing to stop the sounds of pain from escaping him. He felt the sharp teeth work on his skin, before letting go and a tongue licked up the drawn blood, as a silent apology to what had been done.

Harry let his head thump against the wall, groaning. Abruptly Voldemort broke off, the hand in his hair moved his head away from the wall none too gently. "_If you desire pain, it will be I, and no one else, including yourself, who does it. Remember that, my little seer_."

Harry simply stared at Voldemort as the words took a few moments to get through the haze that seemed to have entered his mind sometime during the kiss. "_The basilisk said that you had already chosen a mate. Shouldn't you be kissing them instead of fooling around with me_?" He asked, as it was the first and most logical sounding thing that entered his mind. He could not go for another kiss when he knew that Voldemort had his eyes set on someone else.

No matter how good the kiss had been, Harry refused to be something Voldemort could distract himself with while the man waited for his mate, or whatever the person was supposed to be called.

"_At first I found your innocence refreshing, but now it is starting to annoy me. You should know that I only go for things that I want_." Voldemort stepped away from him, and Harry felt himself being lowered so his feet once again were touching the floor.

Red eyes wandered over him, starting at his feet, pausing at his erection before moving on and stopping at his eyes. "_This time I will let my prey come to me. It will prove to be interesting to see how long it will take you. And until then you are free to move back to Severus. Mark my words; you will not have your peace until you come to search me out_."

Voldemort was gone before Harry could as much as blink, leaving Harry to wonder how the man had done it. If not for the arching in his lips and his groin, he would have doubted whether this had happened at all or simply been an imagination he had managed to come up with.

Knowing that he couldn't go on like this, Harry closed his eyes, imagining Dumbledore dancing in a pink tutu until he no longer felt the desperate need to take care of his problem in the hallway. In fact he felt quite nauseous.

Hearing hurried footsteps coming in his direction spun Harry into action. From the depth of his pocket he found his Invisibility cloak and slipped it around his body, effectively shielding himself from view.

Draco, Blaise and Pansy passed his hiding place without as much as a glance in his direction, probably in a hurry to reach the Great Hall before all the food was gone.

Once the three were out of view and he could hear no one else Harry left the side corridor. The cloak would keep him out of sight, but Harry didn't fancy being pushed around by students who were busy with reaching their lessons on time.

He knew where Severus was most likely to be at this time of the day.

Once he had made peace with the Potions Master he would try and figure out the reason for Voldemort's weird behaviour. If someone had managed to confound Voldemort, something needed to be done about it.

But Severus wasn't in the Potions laboratory, and to Harry's surprise he found that the man had cancelled today's N.E.W.T.s lesson, something he couldn't recall had happened before. In the end, Harry went to their quarters, though it seemed unlikely that Severus would be there. But he had already checked every other place he could think of. Even the Hospital Wing, in case that Severus had been wounded during his mission and had simply neglected to mention it. But the sterile place had held to trace of the Potions Master and Harry had hurriedly left before anyone got the idea that he might need a check up.

Thus, he found himself entering the quarters with a bated breath. While neither he nor Severus was the overly noisy kind, the room was eerily silent. The light that normally streamed through the magical conjured windows were non-existing. But after having lived with Severus for nearly six years, Harry knew the rooms as well as the back of his hand.

He wrinkled his nose when a foul stench hit his nose, making him gag as his stomach tried to expel whatever food he had left in it.

His foot bumped against something, sending it rolling over the floor until it hit something and came to a halt. Cursing under his breath Harry crouched down and let his fingers slide over the floor. Whatever he had kicked had definitely been made of glass and Severus wasn't one to let vials lay around where people could accidentally destroy them.

This knowledge only helped to kick his worry up a notch.

"Of all the times not to have magic." Harry grumbled annoyed, wishing that he was able to use a wand, so he could cast the lumos charm and see something.

A low groan from somewhere in front of him made him freeze before he moved forward. "Severus!" He whispered, perhaps a tag too loud. But he recognised the sound for sure, and it had sounded pained. That was enough to make him throw all caution into the wind.

He found Severus sprawled out on the floor, a position Severus had been in when he returned from a mission and was too stubborn to go to the Hospital Wing. It wouldn't really surprise Harry if that was the case.

Fumbling around Harry managed to light one of the lamps Severus had purchased once he had learned that he had a squib in his care.

The sight that met him was far from pretty.

Severus lay sprawled out on the floor, face down and by the look of it he was wearing the clothes from yesterday, though it was a little hard to tell with Severus' choice of wardrobe. Around them was what looked to be Severus' whole supply of alcohol, from Firewhiskey to muggle schnapps, which was the bottle Harry had managed to kick.

One look at Severus told Harry that his guardian wasn't going to wake up anytime soon. It wasn't like he could simply let Severus stay where he was. Laying with half of his face in a puddle of alcohol couldn't be comfortable.

But even though Severus was thin, Harry very much doubted that he would be able to successfully move the man.

Then again, who said that he had to be the one who did it? "Dobby."

Not even a moment later a pop sounded, signalling the arrival of the houseelf. "What cans Dobby is for Great Master Harry Potter?" Dobby asked, tugging at the hem of his too big shirt as he spoke.

Harry smiled at the sight of the small houseelf. "Morning, Dobby. Can you help me getting Severus to his bed?" He asked, figuring that it would be best to be polite to get what he requested.

Dobby's eyes grew to a seize where Harry was almost worried that they might pop out of their holes if they were kept like that. "Dobby is most happys to helps Great Master Harry Potter to get Master Potion to his beddy." Despite Dobby's loud voice, Severus didn't as much as twist, a sure telling of how much the man had been drinking before he had managed to knock himself out.

With a snap of his finger, Dobby had Severus hovering gently in the air and Harry led the way to Severus' room, entering it first before he allowed Dobby to float Severus onto the bed. "Thanks for the help, Dobby. I'll take care of the rest." Harry said as he tried to force the boots off of Severus' feet.

Dobby snapped his fingers and suddenly Severus was under the bedcovers, only dressed in a pair of briefs. "Dobby is helps." The houseelf proudly proclaimed, popping away before he could be berated.

Shaking his head at Dobby's antics, Harry smiled tiredly at Severus before his eyes went to a picture on Severus' nightstand, the green in them darkening.

The picture had been taken when Severus had been a student at Hogwarts. Severus sat with his back against a big tree and a Potions theory book in his hands, written on a level that was supposed to be far too complicated for a boy in his fifth year.

By Severus' side was a girl with her head resting against his shoulder. With her flaming red hair and green eyes it would be hard to mistake her identity.

Before her surname had changed to Potter, Lily Evans had been Severus' best friend. So far Harry had been unable to find out why their friendship had ended, only that it was still painful for Severus to be reminded. Why the man insisted on keeping a picture of her on his nightstand was a mystery to him.

When he first had learned of this, Harry's imagination had run wild. While Harry had been jealous that Severus had known the woman he only had one lousy vision of, he hadn't been able to stop wondering. What would have happened if their friendship hadn't ended? Would they have stayed friends or would their feelings perhaps have evolved into something more?

Perhaps they would have been married and then Harry would never have been abandoned seeing that Severus judged him for his skills rather than his lack of magic.

Clenching his teeth Harry turned away, deciding that there was nothing more he could do for now. When Severus woke up, they would talk, but until then there wasn't much he could do and Harry refused to sit idle and wait.

While Severus was sleeping, Harry would follow his example and go to bed.

**)00(**

"Stupid, moronic man. Thinks he is oh so mystic with his nonsense words. Unacceptable." Harry said, putting the container with the frog legs back on their original shelf with a disgusted look, not even sure why he had picked it up in the first place. "Tired of hunting, my arse. Want the prey to come to him, can't he be a little more specific? And this isn't Broom slang skin!" Harry yelled, turning around to give the shop assistant a piece of his mind about selling things that weren't what they were supposed to be.

Instead black, curly hair filled his mouth, making Harry cough and splutter for breath, making Harry let go of the ingredient in favour of getting hair out of his mouth. "Is ickly Harrykins in a bad mood? Shall Auntie Bellatrix hex the one who made you mad? You know that your lovely Auntie will do anything for her favourite nephew." As she spoke Bellatrix twirled a strand of hair between her fingers.

"Thanks, but no." He said, slightly hesitant. The thought of sending Bellatrix after Voldemort was tempting. But that led his thought back to the original reason to why he was in a foul mood. "What does Voldemort hunt?" He asked, not sure of what made him ask Bellatrix. But she was one of the people closest to Voldemort and might know something about the man which Harry had overlooked.

A maniac grin graced Bellatrix's face, showing of a row of white teeth. "I know, I know." She sing songed as she danced from one foot to another. Luckily there was no one else in the shop, they had been driven out by Rodolphus and Rabastan and the windows were enchanted to not let bypassers get a view of the shoppers. But they still had a free view of Diagon Alley outside the windows.

"I've been on plenty hunts with the Lord. The muggles scream so nicely when we curse them. You will have to tag along some day. It's great entertainment and then I'll show you how some of the curses look like when they are used in real life."

Remembering the fate of the pillows from that one time where Bellatrix had decided to look after him on her own, Harry felt repulsed. "That sounds nice." He said, not sure what else he was supposed to say. But he doubted very much that muggle hunting had been what Voldemort had been speaking about.

Deciding that he would not get the answer he was looking for, Harry instead picked up the items Severus had sent him for and went for the counter.

Deep in thoughts Harry paid for the purchases before pocketing and leaving the shop, closely followed by Bellatrix and the Lestrange brothers.

It was with no little relief that he had been allowed back into Severus' quarters. Actually, the man had not said a word about their discussion the previous night. It had been like it had never happened. Severus let him back in and Harry was satisfied as they fell back to their usual pattern in the days that followed, with him assisting Severus with any potion the man wanted done.

But it didn't stop his thoughts from circling around Voldemort and the man's parting words, much to Harry's great frustration.

It didn't help that he hadn't seen hide nor back of Voldemort since their last encounter. Not that Harry had been looking for him, absolutely not. But after having Voldemort hovering over him twenty-four seven, it was strange not to see him every time he turned his head.

Not that he missed Voldemort.

As he had already said, it was strange, and Harry wasn't sure that he liked the absence.

Harry was yanked out of his thoughts, quite literary in fact. One minute he had been following the Lestrange trio, purchases in his arms while trying to look like he held no relation to them.

The next moment someone gripped his arm, yanking him sideways and Harry felt himself being pressed up against a wall, amazingly enough still holding the potions ingredients as if his life depended on it. Knowing the way Severus would react if he allowed even one of them to be damaged Harry knew that it might actually be the case.

Harry's first instinct was to struggle, especially when he felt a face press against his neck. It wasn't Voldemort, so he wouldn't accept this kind of treatment.

Not that he was content to let Voldemort manhandle him, absolutely not.

"Pup." Hearing the old nickname Harry froze. As far as he knew only two people had ever given him a canine nickname, and one of them was dead, so that left him with one possibility.

"Lupin." Harry hated how weak his voice sounded. He was no longer a small child who let himself be scared of every person that had entered his room. He was Harry, Severus Snape's assistant, and if the Potion Master didn't scare him, then so wouldn't a single werewolf.

The hand drew back as if burned, undoubtedly an effect of the rather hateful tone in that Harry had spat out the man's name. "Pup, I have missed you so much. I thought I had lost my whole pack." The hands patted up and down his body, in a desperate attempt to ensure that he was real and not just something the wizard's brain had come up with.

Harry winced at the rough treatment. They were close to the fullmoon and it could be felt in the strength Lupin put behind the touches. Harry wouldn't be surprised if he was blue and black the next time he got the chance to take off his clothes.

"It's you, it really is." The desperate tinge in Lupin's voice and the yellow colour in his eyes alerted Harry that Lupin wasn't in a state of mind that the man would listen to anything Harry had to say. Not that he expected him to, Lupin had never listened to anything he said those times Harry had seen him in the past. He could hardly see why it should change now.

That only helped to remind him that Lupin was not someone Harry wanted to spend any time with. The man was one of the rebels, and Harry knew that Dumbledore wanted him back among his sheep.

His eyes flickered around, but Harry was unable to spot Bellatrix or any of the others in the crowd. Honestly, what good did guards do when they weren't there when you needed them? And nobody seemed to notice them, making him wonder if Lupin had managed to cast something to stop people from noticing them, or were people simply so closed minded that they ignored whatever was going on right in front of them?

Harry refused to be taken back to Dumbledore, but he was unable to take on a werewolf on his own, especially with both of his arms occupied as they currently were. So, he would have to get someone else to do it.

Harry's eyes landed on a group of elderly witches that was exiting a door not far from where they were, they would have to do.

Harry turned back to Lupin, and made his eyes big and fearful, apparently it worked, because Lupin moved closer, a sure sign that his werewolf probably saw him like some kind of a substitute to a pack member.

"Don't touch me there, pervert!" To Harry's great satisfaction Lupin let go of him right away and took a step away from him, looking shocked. Whether it was because of Harry's choice of words or something else, Harry wasn't sure of, but he would to his dying day remember what happened next with great fondness.

"How dare you to touch that poor little boy!" The words were accompanied with a bag that hit heavy against Lupin's head, sending the werewolf to the side. For one so old the witch sure as Salazar could hit hard.

But Harry didn't feel the need to stay around, no matter how much he wanted to watch the result of this. He had no guaranty that Lupin had been in Diagon Alley on his own, and Harry held no wish to be dragged back to Dumbledore.

Harry let his feet carry him fast forward, not caring about where he was going as long as it was away from here and towards safety.

He pushed aside a couple, ignoring their curses, though thankfully they didn't find the need to use wands. The Leaky Cauldron was close to full this close to lunch, but Harry didn't pause to glance around in the room.

Instead he headed for the door right in front of him. He pushed it open, running through and didn't pause when he heard someone yell behind him. The words were cut off as the door closed behind him.

Harry didn't halt as he turned down the street, making sure not to run into people and he stayed far away from the street where cars were moving with great speed.

Little Seer has been nominated to Best Dark!Character Twist Story. The voting ends tomorrow so go to 'our dancing days' (author here on ff.) if you want to vote. There are plenty of goods stories up that have been nominated, so vote for whichever you like. Get going, or I won't update in a long time.

**Happy early Valentine to those who are celebrating that.**

**No recommendations this time, I am tired to the bone, and my pain killers have started to wear off. Damn it, I guess that I will just have to learn stop falling down the stairs. Kind of hard to do when the light wasn't working, but at least it was my left shoulder that was hurt this time.**

**Until next time**

**HuskyWalker**

**Next time: Chaos, Harry is in the Muggle world after not having set a foot in the place since he was five years old... it will be fun, for me at last. Feel free to come with suggestions to what kind of troubles Harry can possible get himself into. At least it should give me a good laugh. **


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

"Get away from the street, you nutcase!" Frightened by the yell and the deafening sound from the horn Harry jumped back to the safety of the pavement, away from the fast passing cars.

He was nearly pushed right back on the street when an obese man in a grey suit brushed past him, almost knocking him off his feet. But Harry regained his balance before he could fall on the hard asphalt, his purchases still safely in his arms.

When Harry looked around, the man was long gone, having disappeared into the sea of Muggles.

He had run away from the magical area, fearing that Lupin or someone else from the Order had followed after him. And by the time he had stopped running, it hadn't taken long for Harry to realise that he had gotten hopelessly lost. Deciding that it would do him no good to stay where he was, a lady who smelled of cats and old chocolate cake had been looking at him strangely, Harry had started drifting around, half hoping that he would stumble over a sign with the Leaky Cauldron written on it.

Soon Harry found himself distracted by his self given task.

Harry vaguely recalled being dragged to Muggle places when his relatives for some reason hadn't been able to lock him up in the cupboard. Back then he had been too young to really remember anything and too fearful that Aunt Petunia, who had been walking in front of him with long strides, would leave him behind, if he dared to stop and take a look around him.

To him it had been an unpleasant experience.

Since Dumbledore had removed him from Privet Drive 4, Harry's only connection to the Muggle world had been what he had seen in his visions through the years.

That still didn't explain why people held strangely formed devices up to their ears and seemed to be talking to empty air as they hurried forward, each with a destination in mind.

It seemed like his visions didn't help him to understand the evolution the Muggles had went through in his years of absence.

Realising that Lupin might be on his trail got Harry on the move. He didn't fancy being captured now where he had gotten away from the man. But perhaps Lupin was too busy with nursing a headache, that old witch had certainly not bothered to cast any feather light charms on her handbag. Oh, the look on Lupin's face when he had suddenly found himself under attack was almost worth the trouble Harry was going through.

Now he only had to wait for someone to alert Voldemort, so the man could use the tracking charms in the bracelet to find him. Since he had been with the three Lestranges, it might take a while before that happened. Until then he would simply be on the move and hope for the best, not that there was much else he would be able to do.

Passing a line of people where the one in front was handed something that looked edible through a hole in the wall, Harry's stomach gave a painful twist when he caught scent of the food. It reminded him that he hadn't eaten anything since this morning.

While he was lost, it didn't mean that he had to go hungry too.

Finding his pouch while carefully holding the purchases for Severus, Harry went to the back of the line. He noticed the lingering looks the Muggles were giving him, but decided to ignore how unnerved they made him. It wasn't all that different from how people had looked at him before they had learned of his psychic abilities.

When Harry saw the colourful pictures of the food the shop offered, he felt his bravery leave him rather quickly. None of those dishes were something he had ever seen served at Hogwarts, that was for sure. Vaguely he knew that Dudley had eaten some of these, but Harry had never been allowed to have some, and he had no idea what they might taste like.

"What do you want?" the girl in the opening asked when Harry all too soon found himself in the front of the line. She popped her bubblegum, that matched the pink low-cut T-shirt she was wearing. But Harry found his eyes drawn to the hat formed like a chicken head she was wearing on top of her head. Why in Merlin's name would someone wear something like that? Muggles were a true mystery to him, but he somehow doubted that Aunt Petunia would allow the girl over her doorstep. If not because of her choice of dress then because of the metal rings in her nose and lips. That had to be painful, even with the aid of spells and potions.

What kind of accident had she been involved in to have that kind of stuff stuck in her face?

"If you ain't ordering nothing, then move aside, I haven't got all day." She drawled, making Harry wince at her use of bad grammar. Severus would have his head if he ever dared to speak like that.

His eyes ran over the strange looking dishes until he found something that looked somewhat familiar. "A hotdog, please." He said with a small frown. Hopefully they didn't use actually dogs in the food. In that case he would rather go hungry; it wasn't like he hadn't had worse before.

He placed some coins on the counter, hoping that it would be enough to cover the expenses. But in Diagon Alley, food didn't cost a Galleon unless you were buying several courses at once. "Do you think that I'm stupid?"

Surprised by the girl's tone of voice Harry simply blinked, trying to figure out what was wrong. "What do you mean?" He asked, looking down at the money that had been pushed back to him; so far that he could see there was nothing wrong with the money. After all they came directly from Gringotts and if there was something Harry knew about goblins it was that they took money issues very serious. "They are real!"

"A kid like you don't around with gold and silver unless it's something you've stolen. If you don't have real money, don't waste my day. Go and find someone else to bother!" Harry knew that he had grown quite red by now, and it had nothing to do with the sun above him.

Angry he snatched the coins and let them fall into his pocket where they disapperead, only too aware of the attention he was drawing to him. "Fine, keep your dog meat, I will just find somewhere else to eat!" Not wanting to hear what else the girl had to say to him, Harry stepped away. But not before sticking his tongue out, feeling a small amount of satisfaction at the surprised look on her face.

That was what she got for calling him a kid when he was only a few months short of coming of age.

It was only as he moved down the street that he figured out that it might not have been the smartest move if he wanted to convince her of that.

As he stalked forward Harry decided that his situation seemed to grow gradually worse. He was still lost and hungry, and the fact that he had money but apparently couldn't buy something to eat didn't help.

Deciding that since he couldn't get any food there he might as well get on the move. Staying around here would do nothing but torment him with the food he couldn't eat.

Harry walked down the street, noticing how people's way of dressing changed the further away from the shops and tall buildings he came. Compared to Hogwarts the buildings looked like nothing, but with their many windows and rectangular shape they lacked the personality and warmth he connected with Hogwarts and Diagon Alley.

How Muggles could stand living in places like this and at the Dursleys', convinced Harry that some Muggles were not right in the head. In fact, he had yet to meet someone that could convince him that they were not all like that.

When he reached a small looking park, Harry felt like his face was about to split from the smile that came at the sight. It was such a relief to see a bigger piece of green than the small gardens and the trees on the streets he had passed.

Seeing as his arms had started aching from carrying around their burden quite awhile ago, Harry decided that it would be a good place to rest. There seemed to be plenty of people out to enjoy the fine weather, whom he could hide among. Should someone unwanted find him there, he was quite sure he would be able to pull a stunt similar to the one before with the same success rate.

Again Harry became aware of how people seemed to be staring at him as he slowly walked on the paths in the park. It couldn't be because they knew about him, which Harry was greatly happy about. Though it might be because of the things he was carrying around. Even Harry knew that some of the Potions ingredients weren't meant to be looked too closely at if one wanted to keep their stomach's contest where it belonged.

With so many people already in the park, none of the benches were free, making Harry groan in disbelief. He didn't want to walk more and it didn't matter if no one was willing to make a spot for him.

Spotting a shadowed spot under a cluster of trees, Harry left the path he had been following upon entering the park and headed for the trees. If he could just get out of the sun for a little while, all would be good. It was strangely hot for so early in the year. Perhaps he should have worn a lighter set of robes. To his defence he had thought that this would be a short outing. Buy the things Severus needed and then get back home. By now he was supposed to be back in the cool dungeons.

A hand landed on his shoulder, startling Harry so that he nearly lost hold of the assets. Greatly annoyed with Muggles and the lack of care they showed for what he had brought, Harry turned sharply around, intending to give the person a piece of his mind, only to pause when he saw who had stopped his course towards the shadows.

Two men, who could not have been more different even if they had tried so. Both were wearing a black uniform, but that was where the similarity between them ended. While one was small, wide and with hair that covered his whole face, the other man was his exact opposite, tall and with absolutely no facial hair, not even a small trace of eyebrows. "Now what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school with the other kids?" The small man questioned while the other simply glared at him down the nearly none existing nose. It was as if this one had already decided that he was guilty of some crime.

Offended Harry pulled free of the hand that was still resting on his shoulder. While it let go of him easily enough, Harry noticed that both men were posed so they could chase him in case that he decided to run. Exactly how he should do so successfully with his arms loaded with things, Harry wondered how stupid they thought he was.

Judging from their uniform Harry guessed that they belonged to law enforcement, much like the Aurors, but please men – if he remembered the term his aunt had used correctly- sounded too weird to be something he would call them, especially since neither looked all that pleased, standing there and apparently waiting for him to say something. "I don't go to school, my guardian has taught me everything I need to know." He said, though not without a small wince when he thought back to Severus' reaction when the man had learned of his lack of education as a kid. That had certainly been a frightening sight, but Severus had made up by teaching Harry what he believed was necessary. After all, he could not have a dunderhead as his assistant.

"And what do your parents say to you running around instead of being in school?" The tall man had finally decided to speak and that was all Harry needed to decide that he did not like him, at all.

"I wouldn't know seeing that they are dead and have been so for ages, and I live with my chosen guardian." Harry snapped, already having gotten enough of their presence. Why couldn't they do more important things, like stopping a murderer, or get a kitten down from a tree? They had absolutely no reason to bother him.

When the smaller one lifted a hand to stop him from leaving, Harry quickly brought himself out of the way with a step backwards. "Easy lad. How about you follow us down to the station, where we can call your guardian? I'm sure they will gladly answer a few questions about why you aren't in school."

Harry knew he was probably in deep trouble, more than he already was for running away. He doubted yelling would work the same way as it had done with Lupin. The nearest elderly lady was down by the lake, too far away to hear him, and she was not carrying around on any heavy handbags by the look of it.

But if he went with those men, Harry knew that he might get into even worse trouble than he already was in. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to call Severus. Muggles were not connected to the Floo network and since Muggle electronic tended to turn wonky at Hogwarts, there was no reason for anyone to bring such things with them.

Maybe the half-bloods brought something from the Muggle world with them, but the purebloods certainly did not. Harry's lips twisted at the thought of Draco attempting to smuggle a television with him. He remembered seeing one of those when still living in the Muggle world and those things were huge.

"Touch me again and I'll bite." Harry warned, baring his teeth to show he was serious when the two men neared him.

"Do you know the punishment of threatening an officer on duty, boy? You are coming with us!" Mr. Tall, as Harry had decided to call him, since he knew neither of their names, had apparently reached the end of his non-existent patience as he reached for one of Harry's arms.

Quickly Harry moved out of the man's reach, minding the things in his hold. Severus would positively murder him if he managed to crack any of the containers or otherwise damage the purchases.

Not to say that Severus would not do that anyway when he got his hands on Harry.

Harry lifted his chin and glared in a way he knew that Severus would be proud of. "Do not touch those things. Do you have any idea of how valuable chimera eggshells are? And they are quite fragile in their current state. If anything happens to them, heads will be rolling!" Harry snipped at them, feeling like he was berating two unruly students for not properly handling the ingredients.

He felt very tempted to see if he could scare them away by slipping into Parseltongue, but somehow Harry doubted that they would take well to that.

"Are you on something, kid?" Mr. Short asked, sending his partner a look Harry's couldn't quite read.

Though more than annoyed by being called kid, Harry glanced down at the ground under his feet. "Grass?" He asked, wondering if this was a trick question of some kind.

But as Harry continued staring at the grass, he realised that it might not be the case.

In fact, Mr. Short might be attempting to save his life, but would not say so in fear of sending him into full panic.

Harry recalled once reading about grass that could sense whenever one's heartbeat picked up. When that happened the grass would swallow one whole, leaving nothing behind but hair once it had consumed its unfortunate prey.

If he remembered correctly, then the grass originally only grew in a remote part of the Amazon jungle, far away from where humans would normally venture, but it would not truly surprise him if some unsuspecting Muggle had managed to stumble over it, and had brought it to Britain, unaware of the danger that the grass presented.

Since the man was warning him, perhaps he was aware of the danger, thus why they were trying to get him away from the grass, but why was they allowing others to run around freely?

Could it be that Muggles had found a way to prevent the grass from eating people and somehow Mr. Short knew that he didn't have access to that method?

Nonetheless, Harry wouldn't take any risks. "We are in serious danger. No matter what you do, don't let panic grip you, or it will be over for all of us. We will step away from the grass, carefully, and then we can continue this discussion afterwards."

Not bothering to look at the two Muggles to see if they were following him, Harry started slowly making his way to the closest part of the path. The faster he got away from the grass, the better it would be.

He hugged the containers to his chest as if their lives depended on it, and for all Harry knew, it might actually be the case. He had no idea about how sensitive the grass might be. If he happened to drop one of the containers, it might very well be the end of their lives, something Harry had no wish about happening anytime soon.

"Hold on right there, kid!" Apparently Mr. Tall hadn't heard his warning, or perhaps the man simply did not care. Harry almost snapped at him for being so careless before remembering his situation.

"Keep your mouth shut unless you want nothing but your hair left when the grass is done with you. Do you not know the danger you are in?" He hissed back in answer, his eyes darting from where his feet were and tried to judge the distance to the path. Could he risk jumping the last way to safety? But the sudden movement might put the two please men, who, to Harry's somewhat relief, had taken to following him, though they were eyeing him as if they were not quite sure what to make of him.

Seeing Mr. Tall's scowl Harry wondered if it would be worth abandoning the man to the fate of the grass.

Instead he walked the last distance, taking larger than usual steps that brought him quicker to safety than walking normally would have accomplished.

As soon as he had his feet on safer ground Harry turned to leave. While he might not want anyone dead, though Mr. Tall was annoying enough for him to fantasy about it, it did not mean that he planned on going anywhere with those please men.

"Follow with us back to the station. It seems like we need a long overdue talk with your guardian if this is how you think you can threat a police officer. I promise you that it will be a long time before you are allowed to walk around freely again." As Mr. Tall stood hovering over him, Harry regretted saving the git from the flesh eating grass.

If not because of the things in his arms, he would push the man back on the grass for the way he was speaking to him, consequences be dammed.

"Harry?" His first reaction to hearing _that_ voice was to close his eyes and wonder exactly what he had done to piss of someone in his previous life for this day to turn so bad. Had he murdered innocent children, nearly caused the end of the world, or perhaps been the one to introduce Dumbledore to his lemon drops?

And why could his visions not warn him about such things, so he would know when he was supposed to stay in bed?

"What are you two doing to my cousin?" That wasn't what Harry had thought Dudley would say if they ever got the chance to meet face to face.

Harry was even more surprised when an enormous body pushed itself between him and the two police men – as he now know how they were correctly called - nearly making him step onto the grass, but unlike when they had been children, Harry didn't think that he was being put in danger on purpose. Dudley could not have heard what he had said about the grass and thus didn't know about the danger it presented to everybody.

"Do you know this young man?" Mr. Short asked before Mr. Tall could speak up.

Dudley crossed his arms, the fat juggling as he did so. "Of course, that's my cousin, Harry. My aunt told me to look after him while she's visiting a friend." Dudley nodded to himself, as it that made him more believable to listen to.

"Harry said that his parents are dead, and why does he need to be looked after in the first place? The two of you look to be roughly the same age." Mr. Tall snapped.

When Harry attempted to edge away from the trio, hoping that they were too distracted to notice his departure, he found himself grabbed by the shoulder and huddled to Dudley's side where he was forced to stay. Apparently it wasn't only fat that made the slightly older boy so big, who would have thought? "Mum always said that Harry isn't right in the head. That when his parents died it messed him up. Harry believes that magic exists, that is why he wears a dress."

"It isn't a dress but a robe. Most magical people wear those." While Harry was thankful for Dudley's assistance, it didn't mean that he wanted his way of dressing belittled by the same people who found it acceptable to put metal in their faces.

Mr. Short had gotten an understanding look on his face during Dudley's explanation. "I see, it's an understandable mistake Mr..." He trailed of, unsure since Dudley had yet to state his name.

"Dudders!" Harry exclaimed loudly, remembering one of the nicknames Petunia had used back when he lived with them. Since Dudley made him seem like a retarded child, he might as well try and play the role.

Mr. Short nodded to him, a silent way of praising him for saying the name. "Well, Dudders." Hearing the please man actually believe that it was Dudley's given name, Harry nearly choked on his breath, wondering if he should have tried one of the more embarrassing names to see if they would have been accepted as well. "Make sure to keep a better eye on your cousin in the future so he doesn't get into trouble. And don't worry, lad, we will keep an eye on the grass. Have a nice day."

Harry stared dumbly after the duo as they walked away, silently speaking with each other.

Realising that he should probably follow their example Harry stepped away from Dudley, or rather, he tried to. The hand Dudley had used to keep him in place was still there, effectively stopping Harry's strategic retreat.

"So.. Harry, what are you doing in London?" Dudley was the first to break the silence between them, looking rather uncomfortable as he waited for an answer.

Out of the corner of his eye Harry took in the sight of Dudley. The last time he had seen Dudley had been the day Dumbledore had come for him. Since then he had only seen the Dursleys in his visions, though Harry could easily have done without it.

There was a hard look about his cousin, making Harry wonder what had happened to Dudley since the last vision he'd had of him. Back then Dudley hadn't seemed like he had a single care in the world, but now the weight of the world seemed to weight his shoulders down. "I got lost, what is it to you?" He said carefully, wondering what Dudley was on about. Already his cousin had proved a great deal different than Harry remembered him to be.

"Where are you going? I can help you."

For a while Harry simply stared at Dudley. But when his cousin simply returned the look, clearing expecting Harry to come up with the information. "I was supposed to be in Diagon Alley, but I got lost, and if I want to get back, I need to find the Leaky Cauldron which Mug- I mean normal people can't see." Harry changed his mind about saying Muggles. If Dudley was anything like Vernon, then the smallest word could set off his temper.

There was no reason to tell Dudley why he had gotten lost in the first place.

While speaking Harry's eyes darted around, alert to the slightest sight of danger. Since Harry's own mum was long dead, there was only one aunt Dudley could have been speaking off, and Harry vividly remembered Marge, or rather her dog, Rapper from the years he'd spent with the Dursleys. "Oh, how do you get back?" Dudley asked as he started walking, prompting Harry to follow unless he wanted to be knocked back onto the grass.

Reluctantly Harry decided that it might be for the best to stick around Dudley for now. Not only were the two please men still watching them, but Dudley knew his way around the Muggles, and was big enough to scare potential trouble of. "My kind has a way of finding me. Sooner rather than later they will track me down." He said, hoping that it would be the right ones that found him first.

Surprisingly enough Dudley nodded, seemingly satisfied with the answer. "That's good to know. Aunt Marge is visiting a friend with Ripper to make puppies. She said that it would take hours before they are done, so I'm free until she calls me." Dudley said.

Together they left, but not before Harry cast a last longing glance at the trees and the shadows they would have provided. On the other hand, he was glad as every step brought him further away from the dangerous grass.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked after they had been walking for a while, though it had not been the first question on his mind. But it was one of the more important ones he wanted to get an answer to.

Dudley rubbed the back of his nearly none-existent neck, looking so thoughtful that it had to hurt. "The zoo?"

In fact that was not a bad suggestion, especially not when one took into consideration who it came from. The zoo would be filled with Muggles, making it easier to disappear in case some of Dumbledore's underlings showed up. Even on a weekday as today there was bound to be people there. "Why aren't you in school?" Harry asked. He knew that Dudley had been enrolled into a school named something with Smell. Seeing as it wasn't the weekend he should be there instead of wandering freely around in London's streets.

After a while in silence Harry realised that Dudley was no longer walking by his side. Turning abruptly around Harry located Dudley a few steps, standing on the middle of the pavement with a rather troubled look on his face.

Three steps brought him back to Dudley, stopping directly in front of him. Tentatively Harry freed a hand and placed it on Dudley's arm. Harry was at a loss of what he was supposed to do further. "What happened?" He finally asked, figuring that might be the best place to start.

When Dudley looked up, his eyes were moist, but no tears were falling, much to Harry's great relief. Dudley might have saved him from the plea- police men, but other than that Harry didn't have a single good memory of his cousin. If Dudley suddenly decided to break down to tears, Harry was pretty sure that he would leave.

"Mum and dad are dead. They were caught inside the house when a fire broke out!" Though it felt rather useless, his hand didn't stray from Dudley's arm. Harry wasn't sure how he was supposed to react upon hearing the news. But the strange numbness in his chest couldn't be the normality.

It didn't take long of listening to Dudley's broken sentences for Harry to piece together what had happened to the two adult Dursleys.

They had been alive during the fire, and evidences proved that they had been tortured beforehand. With the amount of people living at Privet Drive it was a wonder that no one seemed to have heard a single sound that could alert them that something might be wrong.

Vernon had been in the living room while Petunia's corpse had been found in the hallway. Apparently she had attempted to leave when she had been caught under the cupboard door, which had effectively put an end on it all.

Harry rubbed Dudley's arm, not sure what else he was supposed to do. Somehow it just felt wrong to offer his condolences. After all, he hadn't even liked the Dursleys.

But his mind seemed to be stuck on the fact the the plea- police men had been unable to find the reason for the fire. It had appeared from nowhere and had not been able to be put out until the house had been burned down to the ground.

It seemed rather suspicious to Harry. There were great chances that magic might be involved. And while Harry didn't want to risk sounding self-important, he doubted that the Dursleys had been picked randomly.

He itched to go back to Hogwarts and hear what Voldemort had to do with this, even if the man was not behind those actions, he might know who had done it.

And after he found out who was behind their deaths... Harry had absolutely no idea about what he was supposed to do. He felt split between shaking the person's hand for offing them, and hurt them for putting his cousin through the pain of losing his parents.

As if Dudley sensed where his thoughts were heading, he spoke up. "So, how about you? Why aren't you in school?" Dudley seemed to have gained control over his emotions once again, not that Harry minded. It was unsettling to see Dudley looking so lost when he spoke of his parents' sudden dead.

"I haven't been in school since Vernon sent me off." Harry said as they once again were walking. He shifted his arm back so he was holding the purchases more securely.

Dudley grunted something that sounded like lucky you, though Harry wasn't quite sure.

He rolled his eyes at Dudley's comment. Severus had taken care of Harry's education, as soon as the Potions master had learned of his lack. Otherwise Harry feared that he might have only had the knowledge of a small child at this point in life. "At the first chance I got, I ran away and now I am living at a school for my kind." Though he didn't have magic, Harry would never count himself as a Muggle.

"I see." That was all Dudley said, and then they walked in silence, which Harry was more than fine with. This seemed so surreal, that Harry felt the need to pinch himself to see if he was dreaming. Dudley had been put on his list of people that he would never hold a polite conversation with should he run into them. Granted, so far it hadn't been much of a conversation, but fists had yet to fly, so Harry allowed himself to think that it was going good.

As Harry had expected the zoo was filled with people, apparently some animal had given birth and today was the first day where the youngling was allowed out in public view.

Since Muggles did not accept magical currency Dudley was left to pay the entrance fee for both of them. Harry quickly found that he appreciated his cousin's bigger built, if nothing else then because it helped to get through the mass of people.

"What is this?" Harry asked, staring pointedly at the thing at his plate with a mixture of horror and fascination. They had found a small café in the zoo to stop for a late lunch when the sounds Dudley's stomach had produced had drowned out what little small talk they had managed this far.

By this time it was too late for most people to eat, meaning that other than a couple making doe eyes at each other at the other side of the room, there was only the personnel.

Dudley looked up from the meal he had already started on, stuffing his face as if he hadn't had a proper meal for days. "Fries and chicken with ketchup." Harry looked down at the food in favour of avoiding the sight of the half chewed food in Dudley's mouth that would have been enough to make him lose his appetite.

No matter how much he stared at it, Harry couldn't phantom why people would choose to eat something that looked like brown and yellow crispy bits that had been dipped in grease.

The non-magical animals were interesting to watch. After having grown used to pixies, gnomes and dragons, it was interesting and fascinating to see lions, gorillas and even the baby polar bear which they managed to catch a brief peak of.

It was when they came to the reptile house that Harry could no longer contain himself. As soon as they were inside, Harry headed for the nearest tank, intending to find out if the snakes were as smart as Nagini, or if being behind glass walls had put a damper on their intelligence.

"_Hello_." He hissed, keeping his voice low in case that any of the nearby Muggles happened to be listening in on him. He had gained enough attention because of the robes he wore and didn't need more strange looks cast in his direction than he had already had.

The snake lifted its head, staring at him drowsily before it actually winked, slowly uncoiling so he could admire the view of the pattern that decorated its scales. "_Do you like it here_?" The snake didn't bother answering, instead it used the end of its tail to point at a small sign just under the glass. Harry bended down to read the small text written there.

**Boa constrictor, born in zoo**. "_Do you want to be free_?" Harry was not surprised when the snake nodded.

With a sharp nod back to the snake, Harry turned around, easily locating Dudley in the half lit room. Reaching his cousin, Harry gestured for Dudley to hold out his hands and proceeded to transfer his purchases into Dudley's hold. Dudley made a surprised grunt at the added weight, making Harry wonder if he should have warned Dudley about the giant bones he had purchases. Even the smallest bone tended to weight more than the entire human skeleton. "What's up?"

Harry, who was busy digging through his pockets' contents, did not look up at Dudley's question. "That snake was born in captivity and has never even seen Brazil. I intend to do something about that."

If Dudley had anything to say about that matter, Harry paid no attention to it. He made a soft humming when he found what he had been looking for. Grinning Harry showed the small vial he had found, though Dudley showed no proof of understanding what he held. "If you find somewhere high to stand, I will free the snakes." Surprisingly Dudley throttled of, intending to follow Harry's advice.

Almost skidding Harry moved back to the boa's tank, the small vial hidden in his hand. While Dudley didn't seem to want to interrupt him, Harry did not want to take the chance to let others do so, if they saw what he was doing.

Tilting the vial Harry watched as small drops ran along the lower line of the glass front before he moved on to the next ones, using his body to shield his actions from unwelcoming eyes.

Soon Harry was back at Dudley's side, satisfied that his cousin had found a niche for them to be hidden in, at least that would ensure that they were not overrun when panic sat in. "Wait and see." Harry said before Dudley could ask any questions. He was berating himself for not remembering the vial when Lupin had cornered him. It worked far more effectively on flesh than it did on glass and stone.

The acid's effect was seen after a few minutes of waiting. Orange fumes rose from where the substance touched, making people take a step back, unsure of what was going on. Judging from their low murmurs, they seemed to believe that it was a part of a new show.

It was only when holes started to appear in the glass and grow bigger by the second that panic started to spread. Harry joined Dudley in the niche, barely fitting in there because of his cousin's size, when the first snake left its tank and people started pushing their way to the nearest exit, screams filling the air.

Soon the snakes seemed to cover every inch of the floor. Harry leaned forward and stared at them unblinking. Their different colours, patterns and sizes made Harry feel like he was staring into a constantly moving kaleidoscope.

He didn't want to move in fear of destroying the sight, but unfortunately it seemed to have become necessary.

The door had closed after the last human had left, leaving the snakes with no way out. Unlike their tanks the floor had not been heated, making the snakes more aggravated each passing second.

"Stay here, and whatever you do, don't attract their attention." Harry whispered, hoping that Dudley was able to hear him over the hissing and rattling tails. The level of noise was also a reason why Harry did not attempt to speak to the snakes, he doubted very much that he would be heard at the current moment. Besides, he had no idea how they would take to meeting a speaker. The basilisk had certainly not cared about that.

Since every inch of the floor seemed to be covered by snakes, Harry did not dare to step on the ground, fearing that he would accidentally step on one of the. With the way the snakes seemed to be working each other up, it seemed like a particularly bad idea. Especially, seeing that some of those were rather poisonous.

Therefore, Harry was stuck to make his way over to the door a little different from how he would have preferred to do it. Luckily there had not only been the tanks in the room, but also several exhibition objects. Some of the display cases had been knocked over, the only sign that they were still there was that some of the snakes were above the rest of the kind.

Harry leaned forward until he had one hand securely closed around what looked like a small stone head of some strange creature, just above one of the now empty tanks. Sending Dudley what he hoped could be viewed as a reassuring smile, Harry kicked off with his feet, using the movement to swing his body from the niche and sideways.

Harry's feet scrambled a bit before they found something solid to stand on. Now he stood awkwardly bend, one hand's fingers digging into the small stone head he was holding onto.

Already Harry had found the next part he planned on moving on to. It was a small display case, but high enough that no snake was on it, and it seemed solid enough to be able to take his weight.

Slowly he edged forward, trying to fight of the urge to glance down. By now the hissing had grown in intense and volume, making it hard to pick up more than a few words here and there. But it was enough to make him understand that the snakes would soon search for other ways out. A few had already started, but most were too existed at the prospect of being out of their tanks to do a serious attempt.

Worrying his lower lip between his teeth he found that the tank ended, leaving him with little over two arms length to the display. Harry crunched down as much as his current position allowed. Perhaps if he was lucky he would get enough power to jump the distance. Or he would end up getting too much force behind, thus sending himself flying past the safe point.

"Hurry up!" Harry tilted his head to the side, the only acknowledgement that he had heard Dudley. His cousin would probably deny it later but Harry was sure that he heard fear somewhere in the voice.

He didn't allow himself to think, or to worry. It would only make him freeze up, something Harry knew that he did not need. It was all about instincts, just like when he had tried to fly the broom for the first time.

At least, that was what Harry was telling himself.

Pushing off with his feet Harry held his arms in front of him, hoping for the best. His fingers closed around the far glass edge, feeling how the sharp edges dug into his skin. But while half of his upper chest laid securely on the flat surface, his feet move over the smooth surface, scrambling for something to stand on.

Somewhat triangular pressed against his sole. Harry's first instinct was to kick out, but he forced it down, having a good idea of what was under him. To Harry's surprise no attack came. Instead the snake allowed him to use it as a step up.

As soon as he was in a safe distance Harry twisted his head around, trying to see who his helper had been. But the snake had already disappeared back to the mass of reptiles, leaving Harry none the wiser about their identity, though he knew that it couldn't possible have been one of the smaller ones.

In the end it didn't matter. As he turned his gaze back to the part in front of him, Harry felt his heart drop. The door to the outside was right there, perhaps one body length away. As if it was not bad enough, there was nothing between him and the door that could be used to climb on. Not even a tank to use as he had done with the previous one.

Glancing behind him, Harry knew that he couldn't go back. Chances were bigger that he would fall to the floor than being able to grab the stone head. Even if he made it back to Dudley, it would not do much good. Harry had no idea of where other exits might be, and he didn't fancy having to climb around until he stumbled over one.

Perhaps he should have thought this thought instead of simply acting on impulse.

But seeing as he couldn't go back and he doubted how long he would be able to stay here, some of the snakes were big enough to reach him and Dudley was at an even worse spot than him, Harry decided that there was only one way for him.

Cursing his rotten luck under his breath Harry got his feet under him so he was crunched down on the display.

He did not remain in that position for long, deciding to jump before common sense could get the better of him.

Jumping again Harry stretched his body fully out. Vaguely he was aware of the snakes under him, some of them raising their heads as if to see what was moving above them. But they might also just be prepared to bite if he landed on top of any of them.

His eyes closed automatically when he collided with the door, one arm flying up to protect his head from the collision. Luckily it was one of those doors that could be pushed both ways, or Harry was sure that this would have been painful. Instead the door moved, allowing Harry to fly past the reptiles though he had slowed a great deal down.

A wince escaped him when Harry crashed with the floor. Though feeling several stones and the door dig into his stomach, Harry didn't dare to get up. The moment the door had opened, the reptiles were on the move and to them it didn't matter that a human lay on the ground. How Harry had avoided landing on any of them, he wasn't quite sure about.

A small shiver ran through his body as snakes slunk over his body and claws, belonging to the various other reptiles he had freed, dug through his clothes and into his skin. More than a few strands of his hair were ripped off.

At first it was like a tide wave of scaly bodies washed over him, pressing him to the ground with their collected weight. But as minutes passed, Harry noticed that the amount of animals that escaped the reptile house lessened.

When what he hoped was the last body passed over him, Harry finally dared to move, convinced that it was over now.

Lifting his head Harry found himself face to face with a triangle formed head and yellow eyes that stared straight into his green ones. "_Which way is Brazil, amigo_?" The snake, which was the one he had spoken to while it was still in its tank, asked. Somehow Harry knew that this was the one that had supported his feet when he had attempted to emulate a monkey back in the reptile house.

A normal person would probably have freaked out by being so near a snake that could easily wrap itself twice around a car and still have some body length left over. But after having been around Nagini for so long, Harry found it hard to let himself be affected by such a seemingly unimportant fact. "_Ehm, I don't know? But if you come with me, I think that I can find someone who can take you there_." At least he could make sure that one of the snakes got away. Wizards apparated in and out of the country every day. It shouldn't be so hard to find someone who would go to Brazil with a boa constrictor.

Especially if Harry could make the snake promise that it wouldn't suffocate the one transporting it.

The boa constrictor regarded him for a few moments before bopping its head up and down. "_Then take me with you, speaker_." The snake grouched.

Getting on his feet, Harry used a moment to brush the worst dirt and dust off of his robes. Black was really not the best colour to wear when one ended spending time on the ground. To his relief, there was not a single human in sight, meaning that he still had some time before this place would probably be swamped by people, trying to catch the escapees.

"Dudley you can come out now." Harry called, remembering that his cousin would still be in the reptile house.

Keeping the door open, Harry heard it when Dudley finally decided to get on the move. A heavy thump sounded and afterwards he heard shoes shuffle over the floor, indicating that Dudley was coming towards him.

Not long after that Dudley joined him out in the sun, looking rather pale but otherwise fine.

But when Dudley laid his eyes on the boa constrictor he grew paler, something Harry had not thought was possible at this point, and took a step back, as if he debated if it would be safer to stay in the reptile house rather than face the big snake in front of them.

"Don't worry, he will not hurt you. In fact, he is going with me." Harry assured Dudley with a sharp look in the snake's direction, hoping to calm Dudley before he decided to flee. The boa seemed to sense what was going on and looked highly amused with the situation. Harry decided that it was better than having it attacking Dudley.

Hearing sirens in the distance, which steadily sounded to come closer, Harry knew that it was time for him to make his departure. Taking his things from Dudley, Harry sent the other what felt like a rather awkward smile. "Listen, Dudley, it's been great to see you and all that." Amazingly enough, Harry found that he was actually speaking the truth. "But I really need to get going. Do you think that you will be fine on your own?" Harry had no wish to stay around until the authorities arrived, but neither was he willing to simply abandon his cousin on his own.

Dudley grunted at Harry's question. Then, as if a spell had been used, his whole demeanour changed, his eyes turned big and watery while his lower lip started to wobble. "Officer, that boy let the snakes out. I was so scared, one of them nearly bit off my leg! He's a danger to us all!" As quick as they had come, the tears were gone again, leaving no proof that they had been there other than Dudley's slightly rose coloured cheeks.

Harry stared at Dudley, not sure if he should be impressed or worried about his cousin's acting skills.

Instead he decided not to dwell on it, less the chance that he would give himself a headache. "Thanks Dudley, I hope that you'll have a good life." A feeling in his gut made Harry certain that this would be the last time they met." If you find yourself involved with my kind's world, ask for me. But otherwise it might be for the best if you simply pretend that I don't exist." After all, his mother had been a witch, if Dudley ever got children, there was a small chance that one of them might show a magic talent.

To Harry's surprise Dudley pulled him into an one armed hug, which was the most affection Harry could recall that Dudley had ever shown him. Stepping out of the hold, the smile slipped from Harry's face. "By the way, you might want to stop taking drugs, they can't be good for your health." The smile was back on at Dudley's splutterings, Harry managed to free a hand enough to give Dudley a small wave before he started walking, trusting the snake enough to follow.

It didn't take long before Harry's started questioning how good an idea it had been to let the snake slither freely around. From it constant hissing Harry learned that this was the first time the boa was outside, and his name was Diablo. It was rather hard to understand why Diablo had been given such a name when even the smallest discovery seemed to turn the snake into new bursts of joy.

Though he could have done without the endless questions the snake fired at him, most of them which Harry had no answer to.

At the sound of voices moving towards them, Harry hissed at Diablo to quit his antics and pulled them to the side. At this spot, a small alleyway between a small row of buildings, there was no hiding place, and it had been so for a while, so Harry saw no reason to backtrack. Maybe he would be lucky and whoever was coming would not see him and the brown boa with him.

As if sensing his growing distress, Diablo used him as a tree and didn't stop until his body was wrapped around Harry's entire one and the triangle formed head was resting on top of his mop of hair. "_And exactly how will this help us to be unnoticed_?" He asked, careful not to jolt the things in his arms. Because of some of the ingredients own magic it was impossible to put unbreakable charms on the containers to protect them. That they had stayed whole since he had left the shop seemed like nothing less than a miracle to Harry.

Diablo did not answer, something Harry was grateful for as the people he had heard now rounded the only corner separating them, so Harry was able to see who they were.

First came a large, vicious looking man with grey hair. When he caught sight of Harry, the man's mouth pulled into a grin, revealing pointed teeth, Harry's eyes were drawn to his hands, which held long, yellowish coloured nails.

Harry tensed up, ready to run, though he was not quite sure how he would accomplish that with Diablo wrapped so tightly around him.

It was when three other people rounded the corner after the man that Harry's body relaxed on its own. Despite whatever craziness the Muggles subjected themselves to, he was quite sure that none of them had managed to imitate Bellatrix's hairstyle. Behind her, with their wands out and ready for use, followed the Lestrange brothers.

"My little Harrykins!" Well, that killed all hopes about staying hidden. Before Harry had a chance to understand what was going on, Bellatrix had moved in a blur of robes and dress and had two arms wrapped around his neck, uncaring about the big reptile that made him look like a strange mummy.

"Idiotic woman, can't you see he needs to breathe!?" Harry sent the stranger a thankful look when Bellatrix loosened her grip enough for him to remove his face from her breasts and suck in a mouthful of air, filling his lungs to the capacity.

It took a little staring before Harry was certain, but Bellatrix did indeed seem to be pouting at the interrupting. "I wouldn't have to check him over, if you hadn't taken so bloody long to track him down, Greyback. Who knows what those nasty little Muggles did to my little nephew. You are a bad blood hound." Bellatrix scolded, waving her wand menacing at Greyback as she spoke.

But Harry hardly paid the witch any attention, busy as he was with staring at the now named Greyback.

He knew about Greyback, if only by words. The man was alpha for one of the biggest werewolf packs in Europe, and a close ally of Voldemort. He had heard tales about how Greyback liked to turn young children. Looking at the man now, Harry found it too easy to believe in those rumours about the man's cruelty.

"For the last time, crazy bint, I'm a werewolf, not a blood hound." Greyback snapped, his pale blue eyes resting on Harry, as if only seeing him now.

Diablo lifted his head from on top of Harry's and hissed at the werewolf. "_Step closer and you will regret it. I might not be poisonous, but my bite will hurt, dog breath_." Diablo's threat made Harry choke on his laughter, having a hard time keeping still when Greyback suddenly leaned down and breathed deeply in.

Diablo reacted faster than Harry had thought was possible for a snake of his size. One minute he had been positioned above Harry's head, the next moment he stroke, only for Greyback to react faster and close a big hand just behind the reptile's head, easily directing the attack away from his person and holding the snake still.

"_Diablo stop, I know those people_!" Well, at least he knew the Lestranges, and though this was the first time he met Greyback, he doubted that he would harm him, if nothing else then because of the fit Bellatrix was most likely to throw.

"_Fine_." Diablo agreed, withdrawing as soon as Greyback let go of him.

Being stared at with those blue eyes, Harry fidgeted, at least until Bellatrix's high pitched giggles drew his attention back to the witch. "Such a nice little snakey, protecting Auntie Bella's nephew from the big, bad blood hound. I can't wait to introduce him to Nagini, such nice hatchlings they will make!" Exactly how Bellatrix had figured out Diablo's gender, Harry preferred not to things about. Chances were that it would give him a headache with the size of Canada.

Breaking into giggles, Bellatrix broke into a dance, clapping her hands as she did so. Harry briefly wondered, if he should point out that Nagini and Diablo were two entirely different kinds of snakes, and thus the likeliness of failure was big, but decided against it. If nothing else, it would keep her occupied for some time.

"So, how did you get robbed into this?" Harry asked, using the small distraction to take a step away from Greyback. He might not be scared of the man, but it didn't mean that he wanted the other sniffing to him as if he was a tasty piece of meat.

At his question Greyback withdrew, standing so he was by his side, still towering far more over Harry than the seer wanted to admit he was comfortable with. "Despite what the crazy bint says, I'm no blood hound. They located me in Knockturn alley, saying that they'd lost someone of great importance and then gave me a sock to track you down with. Now tell me, why does Lupin's smell hang around you?"

Harry decided not to ponder on how the trio had gotten their hands on one of his socks, some things were better left unknown.

"He accosted me in Diagon Alley, though I think that Lupin regretted that." Harry said with a grin as he recalled the sound of the old lady's handbag connecting with Lupin's head. "Now he can add accusation of being a molester to the rebels."

Greyback's lips pulled into something that could, with a great amount of goodwill, be called a grin, showing off his too sharp to be human teeth.

They fell into a peaceful silence, that was only broken when Rabastan approached them. Neither reacted as the man dipped his head in silent thanks to Greyback before turning to Harry. "It's time for us to head back." He said, all the while eyeing the snake as if wondering where Harry had gotten the reptile from, though not really surprised about its presence.

Either they had run into some of the other reptiles he had set loose, or they were getting used to how big a trouble magnet he was.

The werewolf grunted, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jeans, before turning around and disappearing with a loud crack. "Is the snake coming with us?" Rabastan asked as Rodolphus managed to calm Bellatrix enough down that she stopped dancing.

"Unless we can make a detour to Brazil, he is." There was no way that Harry would leave Diablo behind. Besides, the snake had already made threats about what would happen to him if Harry dared to do so. He had no wish for the snake to track him down and strangle him in his sleep, something Diablo had painted a colourful picture for Harry to see with his inner eye while they had been walking around.

Rabastan placed a hand on his shoulder, somehow finding a spot that Diablo had not managed to cover with his enormous body. "We have already been delayed enough as it, anymore and the Dark Lord will send search parties out to look for us. We, ah, forgot to mention that we'd managed to lose you." The man looked rather uncomfortable as he said the last part.

And Harry understood only too well. Voldemort could be frightening when he got into the right mood. Hearing about Lupin getting his hands on him when Harry was supposed to be guarded by some of Voldemort's best people, would probably not cause the best kind of reaction from Voldemort.

Any reply Harry had had was lost in the series of cracks that sounded when they apparated away from the area near the Muggle zoo.

**Before anyone hits the buttons and complain about how out of character Harry is, remember he hasn't been in the Muggle world since he was five. Of course there would be thing that he would not understand.**

**Otherwise, I hope that you enjoyed the chapter.**

**Next: A vision of great importance, and someone will probably die.**

**Until next time. **


	20. Chapter 20

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Warning: Slash**

**Beta: angelhitomie**

Landing on the Apparation spot just outside Hogwarts, the only thing keeping Harry from falling on his bum was the hand Rabastan had on him. The way Diablo had started wriggling certainly did nothing to help Harry to keep his balance. "_I'm gonna be sick_." Harry paled in alarm at Diablo's words as the big snake unwound itself from him to get to the ground, making sounds as if he tried to expel the last meal from his stomach.

"Does little snakey have a tummy ouchy?" Bellatrix asked, looking honestly worried about Diablo as she leaned down to take a closer look at him.

Not wanting Diablo to attack Bellatrix because of a misunderstanding, Harry placed himself between the two of them. While Greyback had warded off one of Diablo's attacks, Bellatrix lacked the werewolf's quick reflexes to be able to repeat the success.

Judging by the sun's low position on the sky, Harry concluded that he had spent far more time in the Muggle world than he first had thought. Unless Severus had gotten caught up in brewing a new potion chances were that the man had noticed his prolonged absence by now. "He's just not used to Apparating, until now he's been living with Muggles." Harry felt a small burst of triumph at the look on Bellatrix's face. At least there was one who did not condemn him for today's happenings.

As soon as Diablo had stopped feeling so sick, luckily without actually getting to the point of seeing his meal again, they moved towards Hogwarts. One of the Lestrange brothers cast a warming charm at Diablo, causing the reptile to jump forward until he realised that he was not under attack, and was now able to move faster forward as his body was no longer in the danger of being cooled down.

Though glad that Diablo was not suffering, Harry found it hard to stay with the happy thought. He still needed to come up with a believable explanation to why Diablo was there. He doubted that the snake's presence would go unnoticed until Harry found someone willing to take the boa constrictor with them to Brazil.

But the time to think was cut unexpectedly short when, once inside the ante chamber, the small group of five was brought to a stop. There, at the mouth of the corridor leading directly to the dungeon, stood two people, and one of them was on the top of the list of people Harry had hoped he wouldn't have to face just yet.

"Brat."

That single word made Harry stop dead in his tracks, though a small smile of relief found its way to his face. There had been moments today where he had truly feared that he would no longer be able to hear Severus' voice again. And though he knew that this spelled a great amount of trouble for him, Harry felt relief fill him up.

The Potions master of Hogwarts moved with long strides, and Lucius followed behind in a more sedated pace. One look at Severus' face was enough to convince Harry that the man was absolutely furious. But behind the anger in those black eyes Harry recognised the tell tale signs of the worry that Severus had probably felt. And those obsidian eyes did not stop roaming over his body, picking up every single piece of clothe that was out of place, but, thankfully, seeing no injury on his person. "I assigned you a simple task to accomplish for me. Simply get the ingredients I had ordered, and yet you are here, returning hours after your departure."

Severus was not yelling. In fact Harry was unable to recall a single time where his guardian had ever raised his voice against him. Severus was always careful about how high his voice went, not needing the added volume to get his point across. "There was a long line?" Harry tried, though even to him it sounded unconvincing.

And by the eyebrow Severus had raised, Harry would say that neither did they other believe what he had said.

Uncomfortable Harry's gaze wandered to where Lucius stood, since he already knew that none of the Lestranges would come to his help. Really, Harry had already noticed out of the corner of his eye how Bellatrix had attempted to sneak off, only to be stopped by her husband and brother-in-law.

A pale raised eyebrow convinced Harry that no help would be coming from that front either.

Shifting his weight from one foot to another, Harry's gaze wandered back to Severus' black orbs that were watching him unwavering. "Indeed, and, despite it being highly prohibited, they have started selling living animals for those potions that require that the creature is still breathing when the intestines are removed. There are in fact a few potions I have in mind that entails the entrails from a snake." Severus added the last part as an afterthought, looking at Diablo thoughtfully.

Harry had a good idea about what potions Severus was talking about. Without a second thought he stepped in between the man and the snake, narrowing his eyes at Severus, daring him to do anything, though he felt the corner of his mouth twist. This was familiar, the banter they usually had when it was just the two of them, though to an outsider the threat might sound a little too real. "Diablo is here, because, apparently, it has to be planned before you go to Brazil to dump a snake there. And I kind of promised him that I would help him getting to Brazil." He already knew that Severus would not do anything to Diablo.

After all, Severus had taught him the importance of keeping a promise. Later the lesson about only keeping it if the promise did not put himself or those he cared about in danger, had come.

"So you went from the Apothecary directly to the Muggle world for no reason, despite me making it clear that you were to return right away once having finished the purchases I sent you after?" It seemed that his hope of rumours not having reached Severus first was doomed from the beginning.

And the Lestranges were not being much of a help, though Harry was doubtful about how much they knew. "And it was your doppelganger that was accosted by the beast Lupin and afterwards was seen running through the Leaky Cauldron and into the Muggle world, despite the fact that you had been sent off with some of our Lord's people." Severus said, a dangerous glint lighting his eyes.

"Yeah, funny story that one." Harry mumbled, mentally berating himself for not being able to think up a passable excuse. "I know, I should have stayed in Diagon Alley, but I thought that there might be other of Lupin's kind around, so I decided it was best to move. It wasn't like I actually planned on straying so far away."

This whole thing was starting to give him a headache. "If there is nothing else, then I'm going to bed. It's been a long day. _Come Diablo, let me show you where I live._" Passing Severus Harry only waited long enough to ensure that Diablo was following him. He wasn't even surprised when the purchases disappeared from his hold with a seemingly unheard spell. He held no doubt that they would be in their proper places in the Potions laboratory, ready for when Severus decided it was time to use them. And his hand still felt comfortably warm from where Severus had briefly touched it when he passed the man, assuring him that Severus was not mad at him for today's antics.

Severus had known of today's happenings, which meant that Voldemort had been alerted as well, the bracelet should have alerted Voldemort that something had went wrong, and yet Harry had seen neither hide nor front of the man.

It hurt. And Harry found that it was not because Voldemort had not come to keep him safe. It was because the man hadn't come. He hadn't seen Voldemort since he had been told that he would have to seek out the man, and Harry missed their talks, and though it was to a lesser degree, Voldemort's constant presence.

He missed Voldemort.

Realising this Harry became aware that he was being followed, and probably had been for a while. It was rather disturbing that he only noticed the stalker now, and Diablo paid the person no heed, busy as he was with searching every notch they passed on their way.

Something bright caught the light from one of the torches that lit up the corridor he was in. Harry barely refrained from showing any visible reactions when the man fell in step with him, the silver headed cane visible out of the corner of his eyes.

Whether Lucius had decided to follow on his own, or by suggestion of Severus did not really matter. Harry had left to have a little time for himself, but it seemed like he would not be granted that wish.

"_Shall I bite him, little speaker_?" Harry's eye twisted at Diablo's question. Seriously, why did snakes keep calling him small? It was hardly his fault that he would probably never be as tall as was normal for his age group. Personally he blamed the potion the Order had forced him to take, and the Dursleys' care, or lack of the same, before that.

"_No, he is just here to keep us safe_." Harry hissed back, figuring that it was the easiest way to explain it. Thankfully, Diablo didn't ask further questions, because Harry was not quite sure what he should tell the snake Lucius would be protecting them from.

He was somewhat impressed that Lucius showed no outward reaction to his use of Parseltongue. Not even his friends failed to come up with a reaction whenever Harry started up a conversation with Nagini.

Then again, Lucius was probably used to Voldemort doing the same thing, and had learned not to act in a way that could be misinterpreted as fear.

Diablo seemed almost disappointed by his words, but it didn't take long before the snake was too busy checking out his new surroundings to continue pouting.

"Draco seems to be rather fond of you, Lord Potter." Lucius quietly said. Harry was not sure of what he was most surprised about. That Lucius had decided to break the silence between them, or rather the subject the man had decided to do it with.

Harry kept his eyes at Diablo, making sure that the snake did not get too far in front of them. With Hogwarts being ever changing, and almost sentiment, it would be easy for the big snake to get lost, especially when he had just arrived. Harry shuddered to think of how the first meeting between Diablo and Nagini would go if there was not someone there to ensure that things would not go out of hand between them. He would definitely make sure that Bellatrix never was alone with the two of them.

Harry pondered where this was supposed to go. The few times he had been near Lucius, they hadn't actually spoken about his and Draco's relationship. "We are friends." He said, still not looking at the man. Harry had still not forgotten that Lucius had been against his friendship with Draco.

But Severus was Draco's godfather as well as Harry's guardian. And unless Lucius had wanted to anger his friend and make his heir throw a hissy fit with no end, there had been nothing he had been able to do to keep the two of them apart once they had managed to become friend.

It definitely felt good to be able to rub it in the man's face, knowing that there was nothing the blond lord could do about it now where Harry had proved that he was more that the average squib.

Indeed it did seem like Lucius had a plot when he produced a silver coloured envelope from one of his pockets. Without words he offered the envelope to Harry, who took it - urged by the man's annoyance when he took too long to actually make a move for it.

The envelope was heavy in his hands, and Harry found his eyes drawn to the Malfoy family's coat of arms, and his name that was written in a flourish script under the picture. "What is it?" Harry asked, staring at the envelope in his hands suspiciously. While he doubted that Lucius would hand him cursed paper, he felt that it would not be out of place to show at least a small amount of caution. He had acted a little too much like a Gryffindor today.

By the look on Lucius' face, he wasn't about to be told, leaving Harry with two choices. Either he risked offending the man by refusing to read what the letter had to say, or he took the chance and saw what it contained.

**Lord Harry Potter, Head of the Potter family**

**You are hereby invited to the seventeenth birthday celebration of the heir of the Malfoy family, Draco Malfoy. The celebration will be held in the ballroom of Malfoy manor, Wiltshire, June the fifth, 3 O'clock.**

**Your owl is expected at May the 1****st****, the latest.**

**My most well-intentioned greetings,**

**Lord Lucius Malfoy, head of the Malfoy family.**

The invitation was short and straight to the point, somehow Harry just couldn't picture that Draco had written it. Harry stared down at the thin parchment, trying to figure out what he was supposed to do. "Thanks." He merely ended saying, pocketing the letter as he did so. After all, he had until May, giving him more than enough time to answer.

Other than the odd armour, they encountered no one on their way through the dungeon's winding corridors. Considering that it was past curfew few people would wander out in fear of running into Severus. A few had already ended in detention before the students had realised that Severus had indeed returning to roaming the corridors at night.

Harry heaved a sigh when he stepped across the doorstep to their quarters, truly relaxing for the first time since his run in with Lupin. "Please, come inside." Harry offered, though knowing that Lucius had a standing invitation to his home, thanks to him being a close friend of Severus.

"Very well." Lucius accepted, going inside through Harry had the feeling that he would have followed anyway because of Severus.

The fire was burning high in the living room, making Harry glad that he had already shred his outside robes.

Not wanting the man anywhere near his room, and fearing that if he saw his bed right now, he would go straight to sleep, Harry instead headed for the couch, sinking down on the comfortable furniture with a small groan of gratitude, letting the heat wash over his tired body.

Lucius sat down on the other end of the sofa, giving Harry enough space so he didn't feel uncomfortable in the man's presence. "Do you want something to drink?" It was too late to eat something now, but Harry figured that he might as well try and be polite. Less he would hear for it later from Severus.

"If you would be so kind." Was Lucius' response, and Harry snapped his fingers like Draco had taught him to, and sat back and waited.

Not even a second later a pop sounded, signalling the arrival of the house-elf. "What cans Dobby being helps with, Great master Harry Potter, sir?" Dobby bowed deeply so his nose tip brushed against the floor, before standing and letting out a loud squeak, catching sight of the other person in the room.

Apparently used to that kind of reactions from his house-elves, Lucius did not let Dobby's behaviour deter him as he spoke. "Fetch me some red wine, and I believe that Lord Potter would do well with some food." Dobby's eyes grew so big that Harry momently feared that they might pop out of the poor fellow's eye socks if it wasn't stopped, but Dobby was gone before he could think of something to say.

Instead he turned his sight on the wizard. "I've already eaten." It was destroyed as his stomach decided to growl loudly at that very moment. It really hadn't been so long since he share that meal with Dudley, though Harry supposed that the few bits he had managed to fit down before passing the food on to his cousin hardly had done anything to settle his hunger.

"Of course." Lucius drawled, not even bothering to sound like he believed him. "Just call the house-elf back and tell it that you do not desire the meal that he has already prepared for you."

Though strongly tempted to follow the suggestion, Harry hesitated. Knowing what he did about house-elves, they didn't take it well to be told that they were not needed. And he didn't want Dobby to punish himself for something that was not his responsibility.

"Fine." He huffed sullenly. "But stop calling me Lord Potter, my name is Harry!" He bit out with more force that Harry first had intended to. But it wasn't like he had taken the title, to be reminded of his father every time someone called him that, though it seemed to be what happened.

He had merely taken it for the benefits that followed and for whatever respect he felt for his Grandfather, a man wise enough to see what kind of an idiot his son would turn out to be.

Lucius inclined his head, making the move look unnatural gracious as he did so. Harry was sure he saw a glint of humour in the man's eyes before it was covered by indifference. "I believe that it should go both ways then, Harry." Harry caught the brief hesitation there was before Lucius said his name, but he didn't comment on it as Dobby choose that moment to pop into the room and the food he brought with him appeared on the sofa table in between the fireplace and the two males.

"This is too much." Harry commented, eyeing the table, silently wondering if it would be able to hold the food or break under the suddenly added weight. It looked like Dobby had planned to recreate the dinner served in the Great Hall, forgetting that not all the students would be eating and still somehow managing to make it all fit together on one table.

He regretted his words the moment Dobby's eyes turned big and watery. "Dobby being a bad elfs. Dobby should being punishs!" With a cry of despair the house-elf propelled towards the table, his head lowered so that it would hit the edge first.

The moment before it could happen Lucius interposed, using his wand to create a shimmering blue shield Dobby banged against instead of the table. "Enough! Harry will eat the food, you crazy creature. Now, be gone before I decide to give you clothes for your actions." Dobby eeped at the threat, and was gone with the blink of an eye, but Harry was sure that he heard Dobby mutter something about ironing his ears as a punishment. He really hoped that Dobby was just kidding.

"Unless you start eating, I will call Dobby back and tell him that the meal is not to your satisfaction." Having a good idea of what would happen if Dobby heard it voiced like that, Harry grabbed the nearest bowl and chucked a spoonful of thick food into his mouth.

Harry nearly spit it all out again when the scalding liquid came in contact with his tongue. Barely managing to swallow Harry grabbed the nearest goblet and emptied half of its contents before it didn't feel like his tongue was being burnt to crisps. "Happy?" He rasped, letting his tongue run around the inside of his mouth to ensure that no damage had been done.

"Ecstatic." Drawled Lucius, making no move to take part in the meal. Harry merely rolled his eyes at the man before he returned to the soup. He absently felt the headache lessen the more he ate.

"_So good, amigo, so good_." Diablo hissed, already half asleep in front of the fireplace, having not even twisted when Dobby appeared.

**)00(**

"I must say that the last sacrifice was very satisfying for my pack's Moon ritual." Greyback commented from the seat he had slit into upon arriving, not bothering to wait for permission to sit when he arrived.

Voldemort had already made a note to order the house-elves to clean the chair once the alpha had left. The werewolf seemed to believe he was above being bothered by personal hygiene.

"I assume that there is a reason for why your where late for our meeting, and I sincerely doubt that it has something to do with the last sacrifice I sent for you to enjoy." For the werewolf's own sake he hoped that the he had a good reason to be late. There was already enough he had to concentrate on with the reports that had been owled to him from Diagon Alley most of the day.

Blue eyes focused on him, and Voldemort returned the look, waiting for the werewolf to get to the case. "Ya know, it's unusual for you to give us a magical pup that was a student here, so I had some people digging a little." His grip on the quill tightened, making ink spots drop on the parchment below it, which he had been reading through while waiting for Greyback to arrive. "It seems just before he was handed over to me, he had been in jail with a Harry Potter. I must say that those pictures in the Daily Prophet, doesn't do him justice." Greyback said with a leer that revealed his sharpened teeth.

Voldemort lowered the quill and watched Greyback through heavy lidded eyes, his magic rising and crackling in the office before Voldemort seized the reigns of it, effectively getting the magic under control before it could do any damage to the objects in his office.

"And where, exactly, did you see my seer?" He asked, keeping his voice neutral. Greyback would not bring it up for no reason.

Fenrir Greyback was one of his allies, feared by many because of the way he had made his way to the top among the werewolves. And while Harry was close to being of age, Greyback was known for making exceptions about those he turned if someone happened to catch his interest.

And anyone turned into a werewolf fell under Greyback's jurisdiction, something they had agreed on when they first had formed this alliance between them.

Three knocks sounded on the door before Greyback could say more. Knowing that it had to be important for anyone to come to him without first searching for permission, Voldemort allowed the door to open, letting his Potions master step inside.

Behind the onyx eyed man followed the Lestranges, all three of them looked rather subdued. Added with the self satisfaction that radiated from Severus, Voldemort was inclined to believed that they had been victims to Severus' sharp tongue.

"Did you lose him again, or did you get the pup back safely?" Greyback asked, making Bellatrix's hand twist as if wanting to reach for her wand. It was for her own good that she did not, though it might have more to do with the hand her husband placed on her arm than anything else. At the current time Voldemort was strongly tempted to ignore how useful they were to him and simply hand all three of them over to Greyback to do with as he wished.

That, however, would be counterproductive.

Bellatrix stopped throwing glares at the werewolf when Voldemort spoke up, immediately reminding the former Black of his presence in the room. "When I entrust you with something of mine, I had expected that the three of you would have been enough to protect him. And yet I have reports that you did not only lose him, but Lupin, a well known supporter of Dumbledore, found him before you." At this Severus twisted, though he had already heard this before. It supported Voldemort's theory that the man had not gotten over his fear for that particularly werewolf. "Furthermore, Harry strayed into the Muggle world."

He had had someone to shadow his seer from afar, with the permission to intervene only if it should prove to be necessary. So at no time Harry had been in real danger, but he had let the youth be, deciding to let Bellatrix, Rabastan and Rodolphus spend their time tracking him down with the fear of what punishment would follow should they not managed to accomplish that.

It was supposed to serve as a lesson. To show Harry that he had little understanding for how the world worked and that it was in Harry's own best interest to stay at Hogwarts where he would be near to provide him protection.

But he had not taken into the account the risk of Harry running into his Muggle cousin.

Depending on what had been discussed in the time the two of them had spent together, this might pose to be troublesome for his future plans. He would deal with it accordingly once he knew if Harry had made the connection with the adult Dursleys' deaths to him. Despite the proof of what kind of treatment his seer had went through at their hands, Voldemort would not be surprised if Harry felt a form of forced loyalty for his blood relatives.

For one who had Slytherins around him constantly, Harry too often acted like a Gryffindor at heart.

Twirling his wand between his fingers, Voldemort turned his gaze to his now kneeling followers. Severus was still standing with a blank expression on his face, while Greyback had turned around in his chair, looking like an eager child, not wanting to miss a detail of what was going to happen.

"You have disappointed me, and for that you will be punished. Cutis ungulationibus." A silver coloured beam shot from the end of his wand and the light engulfed the three Lestranges, the sweet sound of their screams soon filled the room.

The Cutis Ungulationibus curse was a modified version of the Sectumsempra. Instead of merely letting deep cuts appear, the victim of the curse would literary be skinned alive.

The curse would not kill them, they were too valuable for that. But one stripe of skin after another would be pulled off by an invisible hand. It was a curse meant for torture rather than an actual execution.

The cruse was only half of their punishment, thought Voldemort as the oldest of the Lestrange brothers tried to claw at his own skin. Around them on the floor were stripes of the skin that had already been ripped off them. Already they were rather lacking in their human appearance.

Later they would have to regrow the skin. In the past it would have to be done the normal way. Five years ago Severus had made a breakthrough with a potion that sped it up, the healing process would take days instead of months, but the pain would still be there.

The wonders of magic.

**)00(**

Harry felt like cursing when he found himself back in the strangely decorated tent. This time the phoenix's perch was empty, much to Harry's relief as he had no wish to see what would happen if the bird started to sing again with him being around.

He was sitting on the chair Neville had been occupying the last time Harry had been there. So it meant that it had probably already happened, and he was seeing this for another reason than the interrupted prophecy he had overheard last time.

Which was good since Harry wasn't sure he would be able to control himself if he had to listen to Dumbledore's reasoning for why it was that Neville had the ability to defeat Voldemort.

When Harry decided that he had been sitting around for long enough, he found that he couldn't move. Every part of him that touched the surface of the chair was as if glued to the furniture. It didn't help him to calm his fast beating heart as Harry too well knew what this meant.

"Would you mind a lemon drop?" Green eyes snapped up and the first thing Harry noticed was too bright coloured robes and a beard that was in serious need of a good trimming.

Harry stared at Dumbledore, his body and mind frozen in fear of having the man this close to him and blue eyes looking at him, actually seeing him. Had he been able to, Harry would have looked behind him in the already dead hope that Dumbledore might be speaking to someone behind him.

The silence was apparently taken as his answer as Dumbledore popped the sweet into his own mouth, munching on it with an almost childish glee.

Knowing that there was nothing he could do but wait, Harry did just that. Holding his chin high, Harry met Dumbledore's gaze and did his best to keep a cold front as he waited with a patience he did absolutely not feel.

All the while Dumbledore's eyes didn't once leave him. "My boy, you shall know that I am immensely happy that you have finally seen reason. Your parents would be proud to know that you have decided to return to us. With the aid of your visions we will be able to turn the tide of this war." Dumbledore said, resting his chin on intervened hands.

Harry could only watch in dread as he felt his mouth moving on its own accord, his lips forming words that made him want to scream as he stared in blind horror at Dumbledore.

Harry had only blinked and then he found himself lying on his back in the bedroom, staring at the ceiling with his heart up in his throat.

It felt real, but so did the vision he had just seen also. He was able to wiggle his toes and move other parts of his body, which was a great relief after having been bound to a chair with Dumbledore in the room.

Gradually Harry became aware of the coppery tasting liquor that filled his mouth. It seemed that sometime during the vision he had stuffed his hand into his mouth and bit down, an effective way to pull him out of it.

Not wanting to risk being sucked back into the vision, Harry's teeth clamped harder down on the flesh, making his fingers twist in protest of the pain it brought him.

His sight was strangely blurred and Harry blinked several times to clear his vision. He wanted, no needed to know that this was real, that he was not part in yet another one of his visions.

A hand touched his shoulder and Harry instinctively lashed out, feeling his elbow connect with what felt like a person. The person let out an uf as the air escape from his lungs, and the hand was removed, which was what Harry needed.

He lurched sideways, the hand slipping from his mouth. Hoping that the other person had managed to move away, Harry leaned over the edge of his bed and expelled his stomach's contents.

When nothing more seemed to come up, Harry hung limp half over the edge of the bed, dry heaving and gagging at the aftertaste that was left in his mouth.

Heaving one last time, Harry rolled fully back onto the bed, carefully avoiding looking at the mess he had created while wiping his mouth clean with a corner of the duvet. He breathed heavily through his mouth, well aware of the smell of vomit that was already filling the air in his room.

He needed to be sure whether or not this was real or just another scenery he was forced to watch. And since he couldn't very well ask someone else, Harry did the best thing that came to his mind at the current moment. He brought his already bleeding hand back to his mouth and bit down until he felt his teeth break through the skin anew, the pain being evidence enough for Harry's panicked mind this time.

Arms encircled him, pulling him upwards and Harry's panic flared up again and he let go of his hand. Despite his struggles to get free, Harry found himself pulled into an embrace where he for a short moment thought he could not breathe because his face was pressed against the person's shoulder with a hand at the back of his head. By pressing backwards Harry observed that he could move his head away from the man, but the grip on his head and around his waist was far from loose enough to allow him to get away.

Forcing himself to stay in place Harry felt the panic lessen, allowing him to calm his breathing and chaotic thoughts. Now where he no longer had that to distract him Harry became aware of the pain from his left hand that seemed to be beating in sync with his heart.

Closing his eyes Harry focussed on that feeling. In his visions he was never able to involve pain on himself. It meant that this was real, that he was not caught in another vision.

It also meant that he was sitting sideways on someone's lap with his face buried in the person's chest, Harry's mind helpfully supplied. And while the person was somewhat slender, they were much too broad to be Severus, whom Harry thought was the only one who was supposed to hold him like this.

Though the embrace did feel familiar enough to relax him and Harry knew that it was not a total stranger who was holding him, much to his relief.

Pulling his head free Harry squinted his eyes in the light that had been lit sometime after he had returned to the real world.

Blinking rapidly Harry felt himself grow furiously flushed when he found red eyes staring down at him.

**)00(**

He had been interrogating the new snake when the screams from Harry's room sounded, just as the charms on the bracelet had gone off. Voldemort had expected the worst. No matter how unlikely it had seemed, someone might have managed to get past Hogwarts' wards and those he had added to the already existing wards around Severus' chambers.

Following closely behind Severus, who had reacted as soon as the first scream started, Voldemort had his wand ready, more because of habit than because he needed it to access his magic.

But unlike what Voldemort had expected they found Harry alone in the room and awake, somewhat. Many times while Harry had been staying in the room connected to his, Voldemort had taken to watching him while he slept. His seer seemed more dead than alive in such moments, and only the slight movements of his chest had been able to convince him otherwise.

At those times he had seemed so peaceful and relaxed that Voldemort had felt the urge to destroy it.

Once he had been standing over Harry with his wand, the end of the wood had caressed the scar decorating the seer's forehead, though he had refrained from doing anything, not wanting the other to wake up and start questioning him.

But there was nothing peaceful about the scene they had walked in on. Harry had been laying on his back, staring unblinkingly at the ceiling above them while his chest moved in a rapid pace. There was fresh blood, most likely from the hand Harry was gnawing on like a savage beast.

Severus had moved forward with a caution that immediately informed Voldemort that this was not the first time his Potions master encountered this scenery.

Even before Severus touched his seer, Voldemort knew that it had been a particular bad idea. It hardly came as a surprise when Harry lashed out, managing to get a good hit in his state of panic.

Voldemort waited patiently as Harry first vomited and then dry heaved, looking unsure whether more was coming up.

It was when Harry moved back on the bed and stuck his already bloodied hand back in his mouth and bit down that Voldemort decided it was time for him to intervene.

Casting a cleaning charm on the bed and the seer Voldemort sat down on the furniture and encircled Harry with his arms, pulling the still unaware seer into his lap. Holding the youth close Voldemort waited patiently for Harry to realise that all struggles were futile. He was physically stronger than Harry and in his current state the youngster was no challenge to keep in place.

He held Harry's head to his chest, close enough to ensure that Harry could not attempt to bite his hand again, but still with enough space to allow him to breathe. After the trouble he had gone through to keep his seer alive, he could not very well suffocate him now while he was hindering him in harming himself.

While holding Harry, Voldemort observed his Potions master vanish from the room, returning shortly after with vials and a jar in his arms, which he placed on the nightstand. The calm way Severus acted told Voldemort more than he liked to know. This was far from the first time that this had occurred.

Gradually the shivers running through the body against his lessened and then ended.

When Harry pulled away, Voldemort let him, to a degree, still holding him close to ensure that he would not be giving the temptation to do something stupid while he was close.

**)00(**

Harry had no wish about sharing this vision. If anything, he just wanted to pretend that it had just been a bad dream, though he knew that it was real. But the deal between him and Voldemort made Harry's lips move without his consent.

"I was back in the tent." He winced at how sore his throat felt after vomiting and Harry had a feeling that he hadn't exactly been silent while coming out of the vision, but he didn't intend to ask, so he could not be sure if he really had screamed.

Luckily Voldemort did not ask for clarification about what tent he was talking about. "Dumbledore was there, he congratulated me on making the right decision about my alliance." He didn't want to say the next part, but as if he was back in the vision, he felt his lips move entirely on their own. "I-I told him that I didn't need his approval, but I was doing it because it was what I had to do." Other than the slight stutter, Harry kept his voice monotone. It was the same voice he had used to speak to Dumbledore right before the vision had ended.

"I don't understand it!" Harry mumbled angrily, most to himself. He had sworn that he would never return to the Order, and yet the vision had proved otherwise. Exactly what could have happened that would have made him break the promise he had made on the night of his escape?

Suddenly Harry became quite aware of the situation as sharp finger nails dug through the fabric of his nightclothes and into the flesh of his back. "Leave us alone, Severus." Startled at the realisation that his guardian was there, Harry half turned on Voldemort's lap, dislocating the digits digging into his back with the move.

Severus stood by the side of the bed, and by the way he was hunched slightly forward, Harry knew that it was him he had hit when he had been caught up in fear. Guilty he met Severus' gaze, trying to convey through his eyes how sorry he was. How well it worked, Harry wasn't sure about. Wordlessly Severus dipped his head in submission to his lord before leaving, leaving jar and vials on the nightstand.

Harry stared at the now closed door, knowing that Severus would be right on the other side, ready to step in if things went too far.

A quick spell washed over him, cleaning him of any traces of sickness and also leaving Harry with a fresh taste in his mouth, as if he had just brushed his teeth. Fingers closed around his chin, yanking Harry's head back so he was looking at Voldemort.

Seeing the possessive look in Voldemort's eyes Harry wondered if he would have been better off following Severus out of the room.

"_You are mine. And no one, especially not Albus Dumbledore, will ever be able to take you away from me_!" The words were followed with Voldemort swooping down and pressing his mouth against Harry's lips.

Harry's first reaction was to push away. Even with the refreshing charm that Voldemort had cast on him, Harry was too aware that this couldn't be hygienic, and this was not supposed to happen, no matter how good it actually felt. Damn it, the basilisk had made it clear that Voldemort-

But when teeth bit harshly down on his lower lip, hard enough to Harry felt blood starting to flow, Harry's eyes, which he had not even been aware had been closed, flew open, and Harry growled, not liking the satisfied look in Voldemort's eyes.

So he opened his mouth enough to allow Voldemort's tongue to slip inside before clamping his teeth down, smirking at the strange hissing sound that Voldemort made. But Voldemort did not retreat, though the nails dug deeper into his back, a clear warning about letting go, or else.

Harry paid the warning no heed, letting go of Voldemort's tongue as he managed to turn around so his full body was facing Voldemort, while straddling him, with one leg on each side of the man's lap.

When Voldemort suddenly lay back, Harry followed because of the hand still on his back. He used one hand to steel himself while the other was caught in the small space there was between his and Voldemort's chests. He found himself staring fascinated at Voldemort as their faces were mere inches from each other. Up this close Harry could see that some flacks in Voldemort's eyes had a darker red shade than the rest.

Not saying anything, Voldemort raised an eyebrow, which Harry took as a dare to see how far he was willing to take this while he was the one who had the upper hand.

In the back of his mind, Harry knew that this was a stupid idea. He could think of so many reasons to why he should not do this, or at least demand that Voldemort left at once, which might be a little difficult seeing as he was still straddling the man, though Harry had no doubt that Voldemort could easily swap their positions, if that was what he wanted.

But Harry figured that since he had already acted so much like a Gryffindor today, though it might have been yesterday, as he had no idea of what the clock said, this would only be one more thing added to an already long list.

Leaning down Harry pressed their lips together, well aware that he was probably smearing blood around Voldemort's mouth. He decide that it was what Voldemort got for biting him.

The moment he felt Voldemort's teeth against his lips, Harry moved on, having no desire to receive more bites. His lips trailed kisses down Voldemort's jaw and neck until he found that clothes were stopping him from getting any further.

Tugging at the collar of Voldemort's robes, he wincing as he was unable to get a good grip on the fabric. Why did fresh blood have to be so slippery? Harry wanted Voldemort's clothes off, but it seemed to be a two hands job, and his other appendage was currently used to support his weight and Harry could not move it unless he wanted to lay flat on Voldemort, seeing as the other's hand was still pressing steadily on his back.

Clenching his legs harder around Voldemort and brushing his bum against Voldemort's groin, Harry realised that Voldemort was getting aroused.

Now holding his weight with his folded legs only, leaning over Voldemort with the hand still planted between his shoulders, Harry set to work again.

Harry soon concluded that Voldemort was wearing too many layers for a human. It was almost as if he had done this to taunt Harry.

He quickly lost his patience and tugged hard at the shirt between his hands. The buttons gave away with no residence and even without looking up at Voldemort for confirmation, Harry knew that the man had used magic to aid him.

He was breathtaking to look at.

The chest was pale, it seemed that Voldemort was unable to get a tan, or because it was simply because he did not spend enough time outside. Even Harry himself was tanner, and he spent most of his time hanging over a cauldron.

"_You are much too slow, my little seer_." Voldemort hissed before rolling around, bringing Harry under him. "_Let me show you how it is done._" Ending the hiss Voldemort vanished Harry's clothes, doing the same with his remaining clothes.

Harry was pretty sure that it could not be healthy to turn this shade of red, but it felt like his blood had diverted to two places, his groin and face, and there was nothing he could do about it with Voldemort keeping him trapped under him like this.

Voldemort was kissing him, the tongue pressing in before teasing and tangling with his own.

Harry hesitated, a voice in the back of his head telling him how stupid an idea this was, but then Voldemort grounded his groin against his own, and it was as if all reason had left him.

He laid his arms around Voldemort's neck, parted his legs, after a little bending he managed to get them around Voldemort and his thighs.

Harry was amazed by the groan he managed to bring off Voldemort's lips at the action, muffled as it was because of the kiss they shared.

The need to breathe quickly grew too big and Harry broke away from the kiss, panting, catching Voldemort's eyes.

The man seemed to take this as his permission to move on. The driving kisses and nips made Harry's body ache.

Soon Harry was twisted around and dragged up onto his knees, still under Voldemort's body.

Lips traced up the back on his neck, while Voldemort's hands were roaming over his chest, finding and twisting his nipples, making Harry moan in a mix of pleasure and pain as his hands twisted the duvet under him. His sides were being stroked, slightly tickling but also heating the skin and making it feel more sensitive than Harry had thought that it possible could.

Harry was painfully aware that at this point his cook was hard with need.

"_Yes_." He hissed, arching his back against the chest above him, rubbing his arse against the member pressing against it. He needed this. Needed to feel, and right now Voldemort was helping him to do just that.

Harry's yelp turned into a moan when Voldemort bit down in the curve between his neck and shoulder, while nails dragged over the skin of his stomach, undoubtedly leaving marks that would annoy him afterwards.

Something slicked him on the inside, and Harry nearly jumped away. He would have if Voldemort had not foreseen the move and held him in place.

A knee pushed his legs apart, spreading him, and Harry was quite sure that his head would explode from the amount of blood that had floated to it. Right now he was spread out like some wanton whore, for Voldemort to see if the man decided to move away from his current position.

All thoughts of embarrassment were chased away when Harry felt what could only be the head of Voldemort's cock rubbing over the rim of Harry's hole.

Harry's body seized up, it felt like even his lungs had decided that now was a good time to stop working, making Harry feel dizzy with the lack of air.

A shiver ran through him, though Voldemort didn't seem to notice it. Harry knew that there was no way that it could fit in right now, he needed to be loosened up. "Wait-"He panicked, but Voldemort thrust forward, driving inside and Harry was sure that he felt something give.

Crying in pain, Harry struggled against the hands holding him in place, wanting to get away from the thrice dammed pain and pay Voldemort back for the pain the man was inflicting on him.

Voldemort made hushing noises into his ear, rubbing tenderly over Harry's stomach while not moving. "_It will be better in a short while. Relax, stop panicking and let your body adjust_." Harry knew that Voldemort was trying to calm him, but clearly the man had no idea what it felt like being torn in half.

To his surprise Harry found that the pain was actually subsiding a little, but it hadn't been long enough when the piece inside him slowly started moving out and in.

"_It hurts_." Harry was pretty sure that he had slipped out of Parseltongue before, but now he could focus enough to speak it, hoping that Voldemort would listen to him when he was not speaking the human tongue.

Voldemort laid his weight on him so Harry was pressed into the mattress, his behind now the highest point of him, keeping moving while ignoring the noises of protest Harry made in hope of getting Voldemort's attention.

Voldemort shifted his position slightly, still moving and making Harry grit his teeth in effort to hold back the sounds of pain when he felt something inside him being hit that sent twinges of pleasure through him, arching his back against Voldemort.

He didn't even need to say anything to make Voldemort repeat the move and steal his breath away when the exact same spot was hit, much to Harry's great delight.

Harry felt the grip on his body lessen, but it didn't matter because he had no dammed intention about getting away now, and Voldemort must have known that judging by the amused chuckling that sounded from behind him.

Later he would deny the way he was whining and grinding back against Voldemort, but right now Harry was focussed on ensuring that the pleasure kept coming.

He loved it.

A hand roughly grabbed his hair, twisting his head in an unnatural angle until Voldemort could reach his mouth with his own. Kissing him, Harry felt a warmth build up in the bottom of his stomach and he knew that it would not take long before something happened.

In five strokes Harry came. His cock had been untouched when Harry released his load over the mattress below him.

Voldemort's hissing voice sounded in his ear, as the man expended inside him a moment later, causing Harry to shudder at the filling.

Harry's arms had giving away under him, and it was now only Voldemort that held him up. As Voldemort departed from him, Harry felt himself being gentle lowered onto the mattress, a strong contrary to how Voldemort had handled him before.

He was laid on his side, with his back to Voldemort, the man still being pressed against him, but Harry found that he did not really mind the closeness. Feeling a movement behind him it took a moment for Harry to register that the man was actually nuzzling his neck.

"_Bastard_." Harry fought against the sense of fatigue. He couldn't act like a girl now and simply fall asleep. He would let Voldemort know his displeasure and then he would rest.

"My parents were married by the time I was conceived." Sounded Voldemort's voice from behind him with a humoured tone in it.

Harry rolled his eyes at Voldemort's smug tone. It was not what he had meant and Voldemort knew that.

Feeling his eyes starting to drop, Harry fought against the feeling of fatigue. He sincerely doubted that he would be able to move should he attempt so. "_I met my cousin today_." He said, frowning at how hoarse his voice sounded.

"If this is your attempt at after sex talk, Harry, you clearly need to rethink the subjects you bring up. Discussing your Muggle relatives while in bed does not fall into the category of things I am willing to do." An arm placed itself loosely just under his ribs, one finger slowly trailing circles around his belly button.

Shivers ran through his body before he managed to steel himself. "_Did you kill them_?" He forewent the dance of words he knew that Voldemort enjoyed to use on people. He had seen men being unable to recall what they had wanted to discuss when first Voldemort truly started leading them around.

"_I take care of what I consider mine. They harmed you and I punished them according to their crimes. Now be quiet and sleep_."

Harry knew that magic had to be involved with the way he found himself succumbing to sleep, losing his ongoing fight with the wish to tear Voldemort a new one.

**Cutis ungulationibus is translated with Google translate and should mean ****skin lacerations.**

**Sorry about the wait, but the characters wanted to have their will, and in the end I just let them, hopefully that will make them more manageable in the next chapter... or not.**

**But hey, instead of death, you got the vision I promised, bet you all are wondering what would lead to Harry going to Dumbledore, and whether it will be fulfilled or not, and you got slash, be happy. **

**Cywscross has become a new favourite writer of mine, especially the story C'est La Vie, but all the works are worth reading.**

**Until next time.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Warning: Slash**

**Beta: angelhitomie**

Harry could recall several instances where waking up had definitely not been a pleasant experience on his part.

The day after an especially violent beating at Privet Drive, where Aunt Petunia had been delayed to stop her husband from going too far when the man had lost his temper.

Coming into the world of consciousness after drinking the potion the Order forced down his throat. He always hated not being able to say whether he was back in the real world or just experiencing another vision.

This time Harry awoke feeling rather comfortable. From what his still asleep brain could register, he was in his own bed, comfortable and the body behind him provided extra heat that helped him to relax.

At this Harry halted, running over his previous thoughts until he found the one that disturbed his peace. There was someone else in his bed.

Harry's first instinct was to shove the other person out of the bed, but he found himself lying still as memories from last night floated forth.

Voldemort had been there last night after his vision about Dumbledore and him.

After Severus had been thrown out, Voldemort had then proceeded to have sex with him.

Harry felt his face heat up for various reasons.

He had given up his virginity last night, and it had certainly been different from what Harry had heard it would be like. There certainly hadn't been much love involved, if any at all. For Harry, it had been about the need to feel, desperate for assurance that he really was back among the living. He could not claim that he knew why Voldemort had done it.

But he felt worse with the knowledge that there were no Silencing charms around his room and Severus had probably been able to hear most, if not all, of the sounds they had made.

Groaning Harry buried his face in his pillow. Perhaps he could simply suffocate himself before he had to face Severus again. That would certainly be better than knowing that Severus knew about what had happened.

Somehow Harry had the feeling that Voldemort had not placed Silencing charms around the room, even if the man had had plenty of time to do so. It would be something that Voldemort would do.

"_Bastard_." He croaked, wincing at how sore his throat felt.

"_I believe I informed you of my parents' married status last night. Perhaps you were too occupied with other matters to listen._" Harry nearly jumped out of his skin when Voldemort spoke up from behind him. He had believed Voldemort to be fast asleep, and the man had given him no reason to believe otherwise. It brought up the question about how long Voldemort had been awake and what he was still doing in the bed.

But jostling around, no matter how little it might have been, proved to be a really bad idea on Harry's part. Pain shot up through his spine as though he was being speared by a sword, making Harry hiss several curse words he had heard Severus use, when an experimental potion had blown up unexpectedly.

"_Such crude words. I am sure that I can find a better use of that mouth of yours_." Voldemort moved to the lower part of Harry's body while other parts of him reminded him why it was that he was hurting right now.

Harry's fingers closed around the nearest thing within reach, which happened to be the pillow he had previously tried to suffocate himself with, and he yanked it out from under his head. "_You bastard_!" Harry didn't care that he was being uncreative with his insults. He dropped the pillow before he could hit Voldemort with it, the twisting around sending new bouts of pain up through his body, making Harry feel like he was being split in two from inside out.

Cold hands grabbed his shoulder and guided him until he was lying on his back, ignoring the sounds of discomfort that followed the forced movements. "_Pull your legs up to your chest and spread them_."

"_Hell no_." Harry blurted out, glaring until he grew cross eyed at Voldemort, who was now sitting up, the duvet concealing the lower body from Harry's view. Though after this night, there hardly was anything about the man that Harry hadn't already seen.

Voldemort raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. "_I need to see if there had been done any damage_." The man said, as if stating knowledge that every child should have.

Harry merely continued his glare, starting to believe that the blush was permanently engraved into his face. "_You are not getting anywhere near my – you know what. So don't even think about it_!" Harry was surprised that Voldemort simply didn't get up and left or used force on him. It didn't seem to have been a problem for the man last night.

"_Your rectum, you mean_?" Voldemort asked, moving so Harry had to grab for the duvet unless he wanted to be completely naked in front of the other man. It was rather naive thinking after what they had done, but Harry wanted to keep at least a small part of his dignity. He yelped in pain, but kept a secure grip on the duvet.

"_I can take care of it myself_." Harry insisted, though he was unsure about how he was supposed to do that. All he knew was that moving hurt. He wanted to lie in bed and wait until the pain left on its own. Perhaps he would get Dobby to ward the room against intruders once Voldemort had left.

"_It would be a show of flexibility to see you check yourself for damage. Either you let me do it, or we will call for your guardian. By the way you are going on about this one would think that you have never had sexual intercourse with someone else_." Voldemort commented dryly while Harry felt like he had gotten something down the wrong pipe.

Somehow the thought of letting Severus have a look was worse than letting Voldemort have his way, which wasn't a preferable option either. Instead Harry responded to the thing he hoped would buy him enough time to figure out how he could get Voldemort out of his room while still staying in the bed. "_I haven't been with someone else_."

Had it been another situation Harry would probably have been amused by the look Voldemort got on his face. As it was Harry just wanted to find a hole to crawl into and only come out again when the whole world had forgotten about his existence.

His gaze fell to his covered lap where both of his hands rested. Remembering the taste of blood Harry blinked, staring at the now unmarred skin on his left hand. Such quick healing could only happen with the aid of potions and magic, and as Harry hadn't done it, and he knew that Severus hadn't been there, it left only one possibility for who had done it. Now, Harry was thankful for the Sleeping charm Voldemort had cast on him when he had kept himself awake by talking. At least it meant that he had been asleep through the speeded up healing process.

Harry was startled out of his thoughts by a stab of pain when Voldemort threw the duvet aside, placed two hands on his shins, bending his legs until the thighs were touching his stomach. "_Stop it_!" Harry protested, blinking away the tears coming from the assault of pain. When Voldemort let go, Harry quickly held on with his own hands. It was only so he didn't have to go through the pain of lowering his legs again, really.

Voldemort stopped further protests by putting Harry under a Silencing charm. It took Harry a few moments to realise that though his mouth was moving, no sound was passing over his lips.

So now the bastard could bother to use the blasted charm.

"_Reckless child_!" Harry bristled at the insult, though judging by the look Voldemort sent him from between his legs, he wasn't impressed. "_If you are not used to intrusion, what we did can have caused a great damage to you_." By the way Voldemort spoke he almost sounded like the knowledge of Harry's lack of experience would have made a difference.

All pondering about how Voldemort would have done it then was chased away when one of Voldemort's hands went down there and Harry felt something probe against his pucker.

The seer attempted to move away, but again the pain, and also the hand Voldemort placed on his stomach, stopped Harry from going too far. "_This is the last warning, lay still or I will take the choice away from you_." Voldemort waited long enough to see Harry nod before disappearing into an angle where Harry could no longer keep an eye on him.

The probing returned, but this time Harry managed to keep still, a much better choice than being petrified by magic. This way it did at least give him the illusion of having a choice.

The dreaded finger circled the rim of his hole, not going any further. Harry waited with bated breath, not a muscle moving as he waited for Voldemort to get on with it.

But nothing happened.

"_You need to relax. You are already red, so this will only hurt further if you keep being so tense_."

Still unable to use his voice Harry shook his head. Even if he had wanted, he doubted that he would get the tenseness to leave his body. The memories were too fresh on his mind and as long as Voldemort's finger was there, Harry was unable to think of something that would distract him.

Voldemort's head came into view from behind his legs, locking eyes with him. For a while the man neither said nor did anything, merely looking at Harry in a way that only unnerved him further than he already was.

If not because he knew better, he would say that Voldemort looked hungry, the glint in his red eyes definitely didn't spell well for him. "_Spread your legs_."

At first Harry didn't react. It was only when Voldemort's hand moved from his stomach to one of his knees that Harry moved. He would rather do it himself and be able to stop than let Voldemort decide.

Looking back at Voldemort with gritted teeth Harry was glad to see the nod that meant that he had to move his legs no further. This position was far more uncomfortable than it had been when he had merely been holding his legs to his chest. Like this there was nothing of him hidden from view, logically Harry knew that at this point it did not really matter.

The hand Voldemort had placed on his knee travelled upwards, ghosting over his skin before the fingers closed around his penis, making Harry jump in surprise, though he was not sure if it was to get away or to get closer.

Like any other healthy teenager he had awoken with his fair share of morning woods, taking care of it in the shower so not to leave any traces behind. But it quickly became clear to him that having someone else giving him a hand job felt good in a different way than when he attempted to take care of it himself.

Voldemort stroke him to full erection with sure movements. Harry was split between praising him like Merlin's second coming, and swearing the man for not allowing him to come.

Nails scraped over the oversensitive skin, making Harry's cock twist and stand fully up. The probing at his rectum returned, but Harry hardly paid it any attention as Voldemort ran a nail over the slit of his cock.

Harry clenched his eyes shut, feeling a high burn of heat pooling in his stomach. But Voldemort wasn't letting him come, not giving Harry the relief he so desperately needed. It almost seemed like Voldemort was doing it on purpose, knowing that each time he drove Harry to the brink of completion, and then denied him it, the seer felt like he was one push closer to losing his grip on his sanity.

A new pleasure shot through him as Voldemort's fingers, since when had he managed to get two in there, brushed against his prostate. "_Bastard_!" Yelling that word quickly seemed to become a part of a weird ritual but at least it meant that his voice was back.

"_You are getting predictable_." Voldemort mock crooned, the fingers bending and only brushing against the bundle of nerves inside him this time.

"_Fuck you_."

"_I believe that it happened the other way around seeing as I penetrated you_."

Whatever retort Harry had planned, which would definitely involve something with how big a bastard Voldemort was, was cut off when Voldemort lead him to orgasm by touching his prostate and twisting the hand around his cock at the same time.

The pleasure overrode the pain when Harry's hips arched from the mattress, his eyes rolling backwards.

When he got his breath back and opened his eyes, Voldemort had moved to sit at the edge of the bed, looking at him with a thoughtful expression in his eyes.

Harry blinked drowsily, wondering if he was supposed to say something or what not. He really didn't want to destroy the peace they had at the moment. In fact, it would be perfect if Voldemort would just lie down so he could go back to sleep.

Should he tell Voldemort that he equalled a child's teddy bear to Harry?

Nah, better not do that. Even Harry doubted that Voldemort would take it well to hear something like that, even if it was meant to be a compliment. He realised that Voldemort was speaking and had probably been so for some time, but Harry only caught the end of the monologue that included something about no tearing.

Well, wasn't he lucky? But that didn't help the fact that he was in pain when he moved and he had no plans about leaving his bed today.

Earth could go under, trolls could enter the castle or Dumbledore could come dancing and offer lemon drops to the students, it wouldn't change the fact that Harry wasn't moving.

"_Stay in bed today. It wouldn't do if you suffered unnecessary damage_." Harry was not sure if it was his imagination or not, but Voldemort actually sounded concerned. Something must have shown on his face as Voldemort decided to speak again. "_I take care of what is mine and from now on you belong to me_."

Harry managed to sit up, his legs dropping into a more comfortable position instead of being held to his chest and he whacked Voldemort on top of the head with his pillow. "_I'm not an object and don't you think that you can put a claim on me_!" The previous good mood was gone as Harry scowled darkly at Voldemort. He couldn't believe what was coming out of Voldemort's mouth. Speaking of him like he was an object Voldemort had claimed ownership of.

Voldemort seemed completely unconcerned by the pillow he had just been hit with. Of course it wasn't a weapon that dealt a deadly blow. And now where the pillow had fallen to the floor, Harry was wondering why he had done it. Slapping Voldemort would have been much more effective, but probably also something that Voldemort would not have overlooked.

The pillow had definitely been a better choice.

"_Of course not, an item I would be able to put on a display cabinet, and show it off should I desire to do so. You would most likely break the whole thing and get yourself caught by Dumbledore's people but it does not change the fact that you are mine, and what I have, I keep for an eternity. Now get some rest, and, if you are a good boy, I will consider using Silencing charms the next time to spare your guardian's hearing_."

Voldemort was up and out of the room, leaving Harry to stare at the spot the man had been sitting only seconds before, beet-red from the blood rushing to his face.

He had completely forgotten about Severus after the other had left the room last night. And as much as he regretted being able to, he was able to recall some of the sounds he had made and most of them had been far from quiet. So, Severus most likely had a good idea of what had happened, and, unless the Potions master had left the quarters or used magic, there had been nothing to spare him from the noise.

Voldemort knew this and yet he had offered to help Harry with Severus.

Exactly how was he supposed to break the news to Severus that he had just had sex with the Dark lord?

Dropping back on the mattress and placing an arm over his eyes, Harry realised several things that he should have thought of before now.

There was Voldemort's mate to take into consideration. Why had Voldemort had sex with him, when he was supposed to have his eyes on someone else? It didn't make any sense unless Voldemort had done it because he had gotten tired of waiting. But why had Voldemort decided to go for him when there were plenty of other people willing to jump into bed with him at a moment's notice.

The arm fell from his face, a frown dominating it. Gritting his teeth he got back up in a sitting position, getting his legs over the edge of the bed. No matter how much he wanted to stay in bed, he needed to go to the library.

**)00(**

"So, this is where you have been hiding." A heavy bag was dropped at the table he sat at, making one of the stacks of books he had stabled starting to tilt. Harry was half out of his seat, a hand out to stabilize the books and journals before he realised how bad an idea that had been when his muscles protested at the movement.

"Wingardium Leviosa." The books stopped falling, due to Draco's quick spell casting. Waving his wand Draco directed the book back into a stack, never taking his eyes off of Harry. "Mind telling me why you are on a Pain Reliever?"

Harry winced at the question, having hoped that Draco wouldn't notice it. Sometimes his fair coloured friend paid too much attention to his surroundings. Perhaps it was time to see if he could divert Draco's attention from the subject. "Shouldn't you still be in class? Don't tell me that the great Draco Malfoy has started skipping lessons." He added a scandalised tone to his voice. With how Draco always went on about Malfoys setting an example for other people, it seemed so out of character for Draco to do something like that.

"The lessons are over for today." Draco deadpanned, while Harry blinked his bleary eyes, the only sign of his surprise. Was it already so late? It didn't feel like he had been in the library for most of the day.

"Ehm." Harry said, trying to think of how long he had been there. He had snuck out not long after Voldemort had left, managing to snatch a Pain Reliever and getting out of the quarters without running into Severus or someone else he knew. And since it was Wednesday, it was a full day of lessons for Draco, so they were closer to dinner than lunch.

Draco walked around the table and bent down so he was on eyelevel with the now sitting Harry. "Your pupils are extended, your reaction time is severely lengthened, and you didn't even notice me arriving, which means that you are less than perfectly aware of your surroundings. Furthermore, you move carefully, as if expecting pain, and yet you do not behave like you are hurt? So, mind explaining to me why you are under the influence of a Pain Reliever?"

He really shouldn't have been surprised by Draco's observation skills. Really, his friend had been under Severus' tutelage far longer than Harry had been. Severus would have been dismayed if Draco hadn't been able to pick up the signs of the use of such a common potion. It would truly have been a disgrace.

But right now, Harry would have been happy if Draco had been a little less attentive.

As Harry apparently took too long to come up with an answer for Draco's liking, the blond carried on speaking. "You didn't return yesterday as you were supposed to, and this morning the Daily Prophet was filled with articles about demands to heighten the security in public areas since it can't be possible that known rebels are able to walk among normal people." The scorn in Draco's words left little doubt about what rebel he was speaking of, and Harry couldn't find it in himself to be surprised that it had been reported in the newspaper.

With the Daily Prophet having its headquarters in Diagon Alley, it was rather likely that someone had passed while Harry had been cornered by Lupin.

Merlin, he hoped that he wasn't being mentioned in the articles.

He considered denying having anything to do with the incident in Diagon Alley, it would bring Draco peace and allow Harry a bit more time. But when Draco found out the truth, and Harry held no doubt that his friend eventually would, Draco would throw a fit, probably in worry of what could have happened.

"Yeah, I lost sight of the Lestranges, met Lupin, escaped from him and accidentally ended in the Muggle world." He wasn't about to mention his encounter with Dudley. For his cousin's own sake it was best that he spoke about Dudley as little as possible.

"_Is he annoying you, little speaker_?" Diablo appeared from under the table between the two teenagers, making Draco rear back in shock over the big reptile that had suddenly appeared.

Harry felt one eye twist at the title the snake had bestowed him with. "_No, he is my nest mate_." He said, figuring that it was the best way to explain Diablo that Draco was off game without confusing the snake too much. It had been hard enough to explain to Diablo why he was living with Severus when they were not even related.

For a snake that had been around humans his whole life, Diablo showed little understanding of how the world worked. It could also be because Harry was used to conversing with Nagini, who had been with a Parselmouth for years.

"_Your mate would be mad if I let someone bite you_." Diablo hissed before disappearing back under the table, probably to return napping as he had previously been doing.

Groaning Harry let his head fall to the table, resting his forehead against the book he had been reading. While it annoyed him hearing Voldemort being called his mate, mostly because he knew that Voldemort had his eyes on someone else, at least Diablo had stopped pestering him with questions about whether or not the mating had been a success, a slight improvement in Harry's opinion.

The sound of pages being turned made Harry lift his head enough to be able to look at Draco. The blond had taken one of the tomes Harry had already read through and was skimming through the pages with a sceptical look on his face. "I thought you said that the books about the ancient oracles didn't do you much good." Draco said, looking up as if he had felt Harry's gaze on him.

Harry let his head fall back onto the book. Why was it that he had come here in the first place? Oh yeah, he had remembered reading a paragraph about what happened when oracles back then had sex with others, as Granger had reminded him a few weeks ago, though it seemed much longer now where he thought back.

"What did you say?" It was only when Draco spoke that Harry realised that he was mumbling to himself. And judging from Draco's tone of voice, it had been loud enough for Draco to hear the words.

Perhaps if he simply ignored Draco, the blond would get bored and go away? But that budding hope was gruesomely crushed when a chair was dragged out and Draco sat down next to him. Luck just wasn't on his side today. "Spill the beans, Scarhead." Normally Draco's nickname for him would merely bring a small smile to his lips. Most of all because he knew Draco would use it as a weapon against him if he showed that it annoyed him. But right now Harry didn't feel like he had the patience to deal with Draco and his antics.

The open book he had been resting his head on, was yanked out from under him, making Harry's head connect with the table, hard. Harry lifted his head once more to glare at Draco, who was too busy to pay him any attention, Huffing Harry laid his head back down. Perhaps he should try and catch up on some sleep? It wasn't like he had gotten much last night.

Now where he thought about it, it actually seemed like a brilliant idea.

"So, how was it?" Draco's words brought Harry's attention back to the here and now. "You wouldn't have been able to do it in Diagon Alley, and please tell me that you didn't do the deed among the Muggles, who knows what kind of sicknesses' they carry around?" When Harry didn't answer Draco carried on, deciding to answer his own question. "I don't think so; you wouldn't let your first time be somewhere disgusting." Harry didn't dare to lift his head, well aware that the blush from this morning was back on full force.

Why was it that Draco found his sex life so bloody interesting?

Unfortunately Draco didn't employ the ability to use Legilimency the moment Harry desperately wished that Draco would simply shut his mouth, despite the fact that the other wouldn't get into his mind anyway. "And he did something to piss you off."

Harry couldn't help the laughter that spilled from his lips, catching the attention of those sitting close enough to hear it. By the confused looks on their faces when he looked up, Harry knew that they hadn't heard the reason of his laugh. Harry shook his head, stopping the laughter and stared sternly at Draco. "Drop it, I won't tell." Even if Draco started guessing possible identities, Harry doubted that Voldemort would come up as a possibility in the blond's mind.

"You mean the Dark lord?" Right now Harry was quite sure that some higher power had it out for him. While Draco's causal words seemed to be just that, causal, they were too unlikely to even be used in a joke.

Getting up, Harry grabbed Draco's sleeve and dragged the wizard after him out of the library, uncaring of the protests Draco came up with.

He showed Draco into the first unused classroom they came across. Judging from the thick layer of dust everywhere, it was a long time since anyone had been in there. And with no portraits or ghosts there to spy on them, there was a bigger chance of this talk staying private.

After ensuring that the door was closed Harry turned around and came face to face with Draco. "Explain, Scarhead, why are you acting so paranoid? All I did was talking about you and the Dark lord." Draco trailed off, a smirk growing. "You actually did it with him? Damn, that means that I owe Blaise money."

"You made a bet?" Harry knew that it wasn't what he should be focussing on, but right now it seemed easier to deal with. "You are absolutely unbelievable. How could you bet about something like that?" Clenching his fist Harry pondered on the pros and cons of hitting Draco right now. It certainly was tempting to do.

Draco nodded. "I know, but it didn't seem likely that the two of you would get together this early. Personally, I had placed my money on the summer vacation, where there would be less people around to distract you. Of course, Pansy, being a big romantic, was the first one out. She thought that you would see sense only two weeks after the claim on you had been made."

"Wait what!?" The words snapped Harry out of the daze he'd fallen into as Draco had started talking about the bet his friends had made behind his back. "What claim?" He asked, having a feeling that he would not like what he was about to hear. Seriously, what was it with Voldemort and claiming ownership of him? The next thing he knew would probably be that Voldemort had indeed found a display cabinet to put him in.

Smugness almost oozing of him Draco stepped back and leaned against one of the desks in the front row. Harry followed Draco's line of sight to his arm. Numbly Harry lifted his arm so his sleeve fell back; revealing the bracelet Voldemort had put on him during their visit at Gringotts. "This?" He simply asked, feeling split between laughing and dragging Draco to the Hospital wing, so they could see what jinx he had been hit with to make him think of so crazy things. "Draco, as much as I love you, you need to get your eyesight, and possible also your head, checked. This thing," He shook his arm so the bracelet glinted in the light from the windows. "It isn't whatever you seem to think it is. Voldemort found this in my family vault. It's one of those bracelets that people use to keep an eye on their child, though he modified it a little before putting it on, so I understand why you are confused."

The small warm feeling that had appeared at Draco's words, was put to an abrupt end. He couldn't afford to believe in that kind of thinking.

Draco was starting to look noticeably uncomfortable, shifting his weight from one foot to another and then back again while avoiding meeting Harry's gaze. "I sometimes forget that you didn't have the same upbringing as I. Then again, it is something only the old families practise, so I suppose that it isn't exactly something everybody knows."

"Exactly what are you talking about?" Harry snapped, quickly growing tired of listening to Draco's musings without getting an answer to his questions.

The blond blinked and looked at him, like he only now remembered Harry's presence in the room. "I believe that I know what you think it is, but that bracelet is a bonding jewellery, practically announcing to the whole world that you have accepted the courting offer the giver made. I gave Astoria one once our engagement was made official. Yours doesn't look like the kind normally used, but all the required runes are there, so it is the real deal."

Suddenly feeling lightheaded Harry leaned against the door behind him, not sure whether his legs would be able to carry his weight right now. "You're kidding, right? Are you sure that you are not mistaking it for something else? I mean, you did say that it doesn't look like the usual thing, so maybe-"

Draco had moved forward, placing a hand over his mouth and effectively cutting off Harry's stream of words. The blond looked serious, which caught Harry's attention even before Draco started speaking again. "This isn't a joking matter, Harry." The lack of Draco's usual nickname for him told Harry that much. "Anyone worth something will be able to recognise the bracelet for what it is. Sev wouldn't have told you, because he isn't a pureblood, and has probably not been taught it. Or maybe our lord swore him to silence so he had no way of telling you, I don't know. I didn't think that I had to tell you, since the Dark lord told you everything you needed to know before you accepted the bonding bracelet, so I do not need to go into details."

At Harry's shake of head, Draco swore colourfully, removing his hand from Harry's face and using his wand to transform a table into a two-seater sofa, green of course. "I thought it was something else he put around my wrist." Harry informed Draco as they sat down on the couch. This certainly wasn't a turn Harry had expected when he had dragged Draco along.

Harry stared down at the jewellery that sat innocently around his wrist. He had long since grown used to its weight, so it would probably feel weird should he get it off. But it didn't change the fact that Voldemort had engaged himself with him, without Harry knowing it.

Though, he supposed it explained why Voldemort seemed to believe that he owned him.

"Draco, is there a way to be unfaithful with this one here?" He knew that purebloods were very into staying true to the one you were supposed to be with, so it wouldn't really surprise him if there was a curse to turn you inside out in case one stepped out of line.

"Is this the day where you don't use your brain, Scarhead? This is a part of the Old Ways, of course one has to be faithful. Unless you are forced into it, but magic would be able to recognise that so you shouldn't be punished, thought there was an incident back in 1601, so better not do that. The only one you can have sexual intercourse with is the one you are bonded with, which is why there usually is a chaperone in the same room when two bonded are together, to avoid certain consequences." It explained why there was always someone else there when Draco went to meet with Astoria. He and Voldemort had spent plenty of time together without anything happening, but Harry suspected that it had been because he had been unaware of the meaning of the bracelet.

"It basically means that you and the Dark lord are bonded, either until you decide to break it off, or to take the next step. Until then you are together, a pair, an item, some would even go as far as saying that the bracelet makes you soul mates, but personally I disagree. There is no way that a bonding jewellery can manipulate one's emotions. There already has to be an attraction of some kind before the jewellery can be put on. I guess that is why so many in arranged marriages don't dare to use them. They would rather go around in their happy little world, than live with the knowledge that their intended doesn't have the slightest interest in them."

Harry closed his eyes, trying to gain the resemblance of control over his thoughts.

He still hadn't found an answer to the question that had leaded him to the library in the first place.

This reminded him that he had left Diablo in the library on his own.

Harry was out of the room and running before he could further ponder on what all this new knowledge could lead to.

He had a disaster to prevent.

**)00(**

Magic was the cause of many wonders, big as well as small ones, every day. Since coming to Hogwarts Harry liked to think that he had seen his fair share of it. From people being tortured to insanity with a flick of a wand to whatever was the product whenever a student decided to practise a new spell without the proper guidance and supervision.

"_What has happened here_?" In the time he had been gone it seemed like a tornado had went through the library. There were no people in there, and by the signs of it they had left in a hurry. Chairs had been overturned, and someone's homework was spread out over the floor, most of the words unreadable because the ink had been smeared out.

However, Harry's attention was focused on the two he knew had to be the reason for this mess.

Perhaps it was stupid of him, but he had hoped that he would be able to put off the meeting between Nagini and Diablo, prefering that it never happened, but that plan had to be abandoned seeing as it was already too late for that.

The two big reptiles were facing each other, and Harry, who had wondered which one of them was the biggest, found that they were matching in size, with Diablo slightly longer and thicker than the female. If it turned into a fight, he wasn't sure who would win. On one hand, Diablo was a constrictor, but then again, Nagini was poisonous and could kill a full grown man with her bites.

But, no matter how interesting it would be to see which one of them would win if it came to a fight, Harry decided that it was best to butt in before something was destroyed.

Stepping inside Harry cleared his throat loudly, making both snakes pause in their fighting, looking at him.

"_Little speaker_!"

"_Hatchling_."

They unwound from each other and moved towards him with a speed that belied their sizes. Harry took a step backwards, contemplating if it was in his own best interest to run from the predator duo heading straight for him. He didn't get any further as the two snakes reached him and started climbing him as if he was a tree.

Soon Harry's whole body was wrapped by Nagini and Diablo. Feeling that he might break a rib if he breathed too deeply, he stood still at the spot. "_So, you have met_." He said, lacking better words to say but still feeling the need to break the silence that had come with him announcing his arrival.

Harry had to draw his head back in an uncomfortable angle to keep both reptiles within sight. The way they stared at him from each of his shoulders, where their heads were resting, was slightly disturbing.

"_Little hatchling, what's that thing doing here? He says he knows you, is he lying? I will be happy to bite him for you_." Nagini hissed, throwing a look at Diablo all the while that told Harry that she was entirely serious in her offer.

Looking from one snake to the other, Harry wondered why it was always him who ended in this kind of messes. He wanted to pinch his nose or at least give some other sign of his annoyance, but as long as he was kept in place like this, it wasn't a possibility. "_Nagini, this is Diablo, I found him yesterday, and he is my friend. Diablo, this is Nagini, Voldemort's familiar, and until now she has been the only snake here at Hogwarts_." Once in a while a first year would bring a pet snake with them to school, only to have it disappear within days, probably chased off by the territorial female.

Personally, Harry believed that Nagini ate them, but it had yet to be proved.

The tension in the room wasn't lessening and Harry was serious starting to regret interrupting. He believed that neither snake would want him harm, but accidents were known to happen, and currently he was between two dangerous snakes that were none too happy with each other.

Nagini butted her head against his chin, making Harry look at her. "_Voldemort won't be happy, he doesn't like other snakes but me._" She insisted, making the tips of his lips twist, though he managed to keep it down.

Before Harry could calm her with saying that Voldemort would not mind seeing as Diablo was a temporary guest, Diablo spoke up from his left side. "_You mean the little speaker's mate? Humans are strange, did you know that they mate but make no hatchlings_?" If not because Harry was positive that the two reptiles did not like each other, he would say that they had planned this. Furthermore, he found the sound Nagini made at hearing this rather worrying. It almost sounded like a squeal, and Harry was thankful when she ended the noise, fearing what would have happened to his eardrum had she not.

"_He must be so happy to have his mate accept him_." Nagini said cheerfully, her body squeezing his to the point where Harry feared that something actually might break.

While Harry easily enough understood who Nagini meant, it was the other person she spoke about that caught Harry's attention. "_Nagini, who is Voldemort's mate_?" He yelped when a tail whacked him in the back of his head before he could dwell too much on what this could possible mean.

"_Stupid little hatchling. Of course you are the mate, no one but a speaker is worthy of my speaker. Have you hit your head_?" She sounded sincerely worried.

"_You just did it_?" Feeling a warmth fill his chest at the news, Harry was unable to keep a chirpy tone out of his voice.

He might have been hit again if not because they were interrupted at that moment. "_When I heard that my familiar and another snake were terrorizing the library, this was not what I expected to walk in on._" At the unexpected voice Harry's head whipped around so fast that he feared that he might get whiplash. "_Though I must admit that I do not mind the sight." _Red eyes were slowly wandering over him, taking in the sight Harry made while being flushed and covered by two dangerous snakes.

How long had Voldemort been there? Had he just arrived, or had he simply masked his presence so they could not notice him? And how much of their talk had he overheard?

The eyes did not leave him as Voldemort abandoned the spot in the doorway, walking casually over to the trio. "_I do remember that I told you to stay in bed for today, do I have to bind you to make you follow my orders_?" Voldemort halted once he was in front of Harry, reaching out and letting a finger run over the smaller male's cheek.

Harry licked his lips, his mouth suddenly feeling abnormally dry. "_Am I your mate_?" The words were out before Harry had a chance to second guess how smart it would be to voice the question.

"_And where, exactly, did you hear that_?" Harry was on guard immediately. There was nothing off about how Voldemort had said this and yet Harry could not shake off the feeling that they had moved onto dangerous ground.

He shrugged the best he could with his body being constricted as it was. "_The basilisk informed me that you had chosen one, Nagini seems to believe it is me, and I just found out that this thing is not just there to ensure my safety_." The whole thing was said offhanded, though his heart seemed to beat slightly faster as he waited for Voldemort's answer.

He managed to sneak his left hand out between the snakes' bodies, the sleeve pulled back enough to reveal the bracelet, making sure that Voldemort could see it.

"_I told you, that you are mine. This bracelet proves it_." Fingers encircled his wrist, turning the limb slowly as he took in the details of the jewellery. Harry couldn't help but look as well, despite knowing every detail by now. "_It is still around your wrist, meaning that you haven't rejected me despite your new knowledge. But who of your friends told you about its meaning_?"

Again, Harry shrugged. He held no wish about getting Draco into trouble for this. The blond had helped him, how long would it have taken him to find out the bracelet's meaning if Draco had actually kept his mouth shut?

Of course, there had to be other ways to get the bracelet off that didn't include rejecting Voldemort, but Harry lacked the desire to find them. He had learned to like the security the bracelet around his wrist brought him. "_I don't like being tricked._" He informed, but didn't attempt to move his hand from Voldemort's.

He nearly snapped when Voldemort placed his other hand on top of his head, actually petting him. "_The bracelet was only meant to ensure that no one would dare to touch you. It was a way to inform people that you belong to me. But I hadn't expected things to take a turn like this_." The hand on his head moved and Harry's eyes fell closed as fingers carted through his hair. "_You are mine, and I intend to keep it that way. I do not share and I will keep you by my side_."

Some kind of command had to have been given as Harry was suddenly free from the two snakes that had kept him in place.

Before he could enjoy his newfound freedom, Harry was scooped off his feet and into Voldemort's arms, one under his knees while the other was supporting his shoulders. Surprised Harry latched onto the nearest thing, which happened to be Voldemort's neck, to keep his balance. "_What do you think you are doing_?" Demanded Harry, struggling to be let down, but Voldemort's grip did not slack.

Voldemort turned around and strode out of the library with Harry in his arms. Looking over the man's shoulder Harry saw that the two snakes were following along, not attacking each other as they slid side by side. "_I ordered bedrest for a reason. Taking a Pain reliever does not change that fact. And how do you intend to make it back to your room on your own? Unless you enjoy having people looking at you as you limp_?" Harry decided against answering, letting go of Voldemort so he could cross his arms over his chest.

He briefly touched the bracelet, careful not to look at it in case that he drew Voldemort's attention to it.

His happiness over discovering that he was Voldemort's mate didn't get to last for long.

Harry wondered whether he should tell Voldemort about his concerns, but decided to wait, at least for a little while. If nothing happened, he would speak up.

But perhaps if he waited for a little while, everything would turn out to be okay.

Still, Harry could not get rid of the worry that had driven him to the library in the first place.

He supposed he would just have to wait and see if he would get a vision again, or if no longer being a virgin meant that he had lost his only link to magic.

***Points at male person in the shadows* Next chapter you **_**will die**_**, everything be dammed. **

**Illusions of Grandeur by Kanathia is worth reading.**

**Until next time**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

"I would appreciate it, if you stopped avoiding me and instead stayed here long enough to have a talk." Harry, who had stopped mid-step, placed his food down on the floor and turned around to face the speaker with a slightly strained smile.

"Good morning, Severus. I didn't think that you would be up yet." Seeing that Severus was still dressed in his black pyjamas, it was clear that he hadn't just come back from brewing the whole night. A nicking in the back of his mind told Harry that Severus might have cast a spell that would alert him should Harry try and pull a stunt like this.

Harry took a step back, body tense. Perhaps he would be lucky and Severus would be too tired to notice him moving before he was already out of the door. It was after all rather early, he had chosen this time in hope that Severus would be in a too deep state of sleep to notice what was going on. "Indeed. You mistakenly believed that you could sneak out like you did yesterday, but it seems that the two of us are in need of a talk."

Wincing Harry let Severus step around him and followed Severus to the Potions laboratory, Severus having transformed his nightclothes into black robes before they even left their quarters.

By the time Harry was pointed towards a worktable with the ingredients he needed to prepare for the potion Severus had in mind, he was sweating profoundly.

Whipping his hands dry on his robes, Harry grabbed a knife and started slicing the fire salamander hearts. He knew that Severus would speak what was on his mind when the man was ready for it, and not a moment sooner. So, trying to get the words out of him and asking questions would only prolong the waiting time.

"How long have you and the Dark lord been having an intimate relationship?" Severus' question made Harry tighten his grip on the knife, bowing his head so Severus wouldn't be able to see the unnatural shade of red his face had gained.

That cleared away any doubts Harry might have allowed to linger about whether or not Severus had heard anything. "That night was when it started, it was the first time." Both his first time with Voldemort, and the first time at all.

He cut through the salamander heart with unnecessary strength, sending one half of it flying and disappearing into the shadows by the walls. Blinking in surprise, Harry looked down at the cutting board, where the other half laid innocently. He just knew that the other part would be a pain to find later.

Harry shifted, and couldn't keep a wince off of his face. Though the pain hadn't been quite so dominating this morning, he had still drowned another Pain reliever to ensure that no sign of his late night activities lingered for anyone to see.

Severus and Draco already knew, and Harry didn't want the word to spread further. Though he supposed that it wasn't to be avoided when Draco handed Blaise the wining money from their bet. Sometimes he really didn't understand his friends.

Needing to do something Harry dumped the hearts into a bowl before picking up the next ingredients he needed to prepare, chimera eggshells, which had to be crushed to dust if they should be useable in any kind of potion. "A recent development." A brief touch of relief could be heard in Severus' voice, making Harry lift his head, frowning.

"You're against it?" He asked, regretting not having taken Severus into account before things had gone this far. It was bound to be awkward for Severus. His ward being bound with his master. It was bound to raise Severus' standing, but it would probably also put Severus in a predicament. After all, Voldemort had already proven that he cared very little when it came to others' opinions on matters.

"I trust you enough to hope that you are grown up enough to not let yourself be pressured into situations that you do not feel safe with. However, should something happen, I fully expect you to come to me and I will help you to the best of my abilities." Severus promised solemnly.

Smiling brightly, Harry let go of the knife. "Thanks." The word was muffled, but the way Severus' body twisted Harry knew that he had been heard.

Picking up the knife, Harry used the flat side of it to continue his work, watching as Severus started lining the things up he would need for the potion.

"Severus, how much do you know about the oracles from the ancient Greece?" Harry asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled while they worked.

By now Harry was done preparing the ingredients Severus needed for the potion, instead adding them to the line Severus had already made, so they were easy to grab when Severus needed them. It was something that Harry had done so many times that he didn't even need to think when he did it.

Having already lit the fire under the big cauldron he intended to use for this morning's potion, Severus watched the flames closely, waiting for them to gain the right colour so he knew it would be warm enough to work with. "I assume that there is a reason for you to ask that specific question, and yet not being specifying what you want to know. Am I wrong to assume that it is related to your latest actions with the Dark lord?" Deeming that the fire had reached the right temperature, Severus got to work.

Shaking his head, Harry realised that Severus couldn't see him while he was so concentrated on his work and instead answered him verbally. "No, you're right. I remembered reading something that happened to the Oracles when they had, you know, sexual intercourse with someone." He ended with a small shrug, feeling like his head was about to burst from the amount of blood that was floating fast to it.

"You read the book written by Miranda Clearsight." Harry tilted his head to the side, unsure if it was meant as a question, or if Severus simply was stating a fact. But he was saved from answering when Severus carried on, giving Harry an answer to his small wondering. "While being a somewhat passable researcher, Ms. Clearsight has the tendency to get her facts mixed together, thus making her an unreliable source. Why we still have books written by her in the library, I am unsure about. Unfortunately, all the books have been spelled water and fire proof, so it's rather hard to get rid of them, since they seem to return to their original spots no matter what you do to them." By the sound of it, Severus was speaking from experience, making Harry wonder, what book had made the man frustrated enough to actually try and damage the volumes.

Relief swelled up inside him at Severus' words. If what Severus said was true, then Harry had absolutely no reason to be worried. His visions, the magic he could do, was still there. He would still be able to see the future, a blessed curse as it was.

Still, it would be nice if he could have a vision, even about something small, that would nail the truth down, kicking out the small amount of lingering doubt that was still there, even after he had heard what Severus had said.

"Severus, about my last vision." Harry trailed off, not sure of how he should carry on. No matter how much he really wanted to forget about the whole ordeal, he knew that he couldn't simply ignore what he had seen.

For a time Severus said nothing, leaving Harry to wait as Severus brewed. When a pause came in the process, Severus lifted his eyes from the potion he was slowly stirring counter-clockwise, black orbs drilling into green ones. "You have had plenty of visions in the time I have known you. Some showing good things, and others the negative things people's choices could lead to. And choices are a great part of what your visions depends on. If a person turns left instead of right, he might avoid being hit with the Avadra Kedavra, but instead he gets smashed to pieces by a mountain troll. Tell me, Harry, do you feel the need to seek out Dumbledore and declare your loyalty to him and his order?" With that said Severus was back at stirring, one hand slowly adding rose petals. At this point the potion had started to boil, and had turned from soft violet to a bright orange shade.

Slightly disturbed by the mental image Severus had created with his words, Harry had to admit that Severus had a point in what he had said. Harry had sworn that he would never return to the Order, an oath he intended to keep no matter what happened. If he didn't return of his own will, he wouldn't have said those words, meaning that the vision would not come to happen.

Greatly calmed, Harry's smile slipped off his face at Severus' next words. "Of course, there are means to get you to join them in a way that makes it seems like you are doing it of your own will. You could be hold under the Imperious curse, dosed with a potion, the possibilities are unnumbered. I have already promised to do my best to protect you when I took you in, and others too are willing to die for you, if it meant that you would be safe." There was no doubt that Severus was speaking the truth, though Harry would have preferred it to be different.

But the knowledge of how far some people were willing to go just to keep him safe, made Harry's heart feel heavy. "I don't want anyone to die for me." He said with a low voice, rubbing his neck uncomfortably. Though not liking it, he was somewhat used to people dying, having seen it happen plenty of times in his visions.

It didn't ease up the fact that it might happen to someone he knew and cared about, a thought that made Harry's throat tighten as he felt like he couldn't breathe.

"Be that as it may, it is a likely situation that might pop up in the future. You are an attractive target for the Order of the Phoenix. Not only are you a seer, but you are also connected to several people of importance in our society. Just imagine what the Dark lord would do if you should go missing, possible captured and brought to Dumbledore."

Harry's mind came up blank. Before he knew that Voldemort would have been pissed by losing his seer and the damage Harry's visions could make in the wrong hands would probably start a man hunt for him. With the turn their relationship had recently taken, Harry didn't know what would happen, only that it would for sure be painful for those who dared to stand in Voldemort's way.

"Now where that has been cleared," Severus said, making Harry's eyes snap back to him. "We have to talk about your relationship with the Dark lord."

Harry couldn't help but wince. Merlin, did Severus have to make it sound so formal? Considering that they were well past the point of holding hands it just seemed wrong. "What about it?" Unsure of what he should do with his hands, Harry stuffed them deep into his pockets. That way he would at least not accidentally knock something over. With where they were such actions could have fatal consequences.

"Seeing as I have practically raised you brat, I know that you are not entirely brainless. You might act without thinking, but you are not stupid." This coming from Severus could be considered a great compliment, and Harry felt like he would be able to fly on the feeling of warmness that filled up his chest at Severus' words.

Severus carried on as if not noticing the look on Harry's fact, though Harry doubted that Severus could have overlooked it. "I expect that you have taken all benefits and consequences into account before you agreed to enter a relationship on this level." In fact, he hadn't. But it had happened so fast that Harry felt like he hadn't had a real choice in the matter. Not that he thought that it would have changed anything, Voldemort was nothing if not persistent and would eventually have gotten his will, and Harry would not claim that he regretted it, but he would have preferred it if all those things had not been dumped on him at once.

Apparently seeing the answer on his face, Severus nodded once. "While you are nearly an adult, and thus should be able to take responsibility for your own decisions, I need to ask you how much knowledge you have about the sexual intercourse between two men. Seeing as you have given no signs up to now about where your preference lay, I was mostly prepared to explain to you the physical and mental consequences of being with someone of the opposite gender. Now we will add society's view on same gender relationships, both wizarding and Muggle view."

Realising that he was about to receive the talk, which was kind of pointless in Harry's eyes, seeing how far he had already gone, Harry stared longingly at the door leading out. It would have been preferable if he had just stayed in his bed instead of attempting to sneak out.

**)00(**

"No, no, no. You need to use number five if you want to impress professor Vector." Blaise argued with Draco, leaning over with his quill ready to correct something on the parchment Draco had been working on, only to have his hand slapped away by said blond, who spotted a scowl on his face.

"Stuff it, Blaise." Over the edge of the book he was trying to read, Harry watched Draco move his homework out of Blaise's reach as a safety measure. "And three is good enough to make this work. Five, while being a good number in Arithmancy, it'll be too unstable when added to the other numbers. I will rather have an average result than risk doing something that might not work, thus making me look like an idiot."

They had been like this ever since they met and headed to the Great Hall for an early breakfast. Harry had contemplated going somewhere else, where he might be able to read in peace, but had ended up deciding against it.

Already Harry could tell that his last vision was changing things. Usually he was able to meet Draco and the other at the Great Hall when he planned on eating with them. This morning he had found the three boys waiting outside the door to the laboratory to escort him to the Great Hall, something he was sure was Voldemort's doing.

He hadn't even been able to go for a bathroom break without having someone following along with him, it wasn't even like Draco had had to use the bathroom, and there had been no reason for his friend to stare at his own image in the mirror for so long.

Harry was drawn back to the situation at hand by the sound of two thumps and the following groans. "Man, what was that for?" Blaise asked, rubbing the back of his head as he kept a wary eye at the tome between Theo's hands as the other was standing behind the two seated wizards.

"Your bickering disturbs my reading." Even Harry winced at Theodore's tone of voice, not even being within reach of the normally quiet Slytherin. "And both of you are wrong." He added, leaning down to have a look at Draco's calculation. "Seven would be much better in this combination, with it being more magical powerful and it will undo the damage of the mistake your fourth calculation would have made."

Peaceful silence surrounded their spot at the table as Draco tried to figure out what mistake it was that he was supposed to have made while Blaise once again turned his attention to his own homework that needed to be done before the start of the day's first lesson.

Theo walked around the table, choosing to sit by Harry's side and across from the two others in their group. They shared a sideway glance before each went back to their books as Draco and Blaise started bickering anew, this time about whether or not it was necessary to go in depth about some theory or another for the chance of getting a better grade.

After that Harry turned them out, deciding to pay attention to what he was reading instead.

**Hocruxes have been classified as belonging in the blackest of the Dark Arts.**

**Sources prove that Hocruxes were created back at the time of Hogwarts' founders.**

**Helga Hufflepuff's mother, Lady Hufflepuff, had a bad health and suffered from a sickness that quickly grew worse. Reaching her 57****th**** birthday it became clear that she would not live for much longer.**

**Lord Hufflepuff, father to Helga Hufflepuff, and Uncle to Rowena Ravenclaw, searched for a cure for his wife's sickness.**

**Time went on without Lord Hufflepuff finding a solution as his wife's health continued to decay. But he found something that would prolong Lady Hufflepuff's life until the day where a cure for the sickness would be found.**

**At this point the few sources from that time disagree about what happened next.**

**Some say that Lady Hufflpuff refused to make use of the temporary solution, too disgusted to do what was needed to create a Hocrux.**

**Other claims that she let herself be talked into it, but after watching her beloved ones die one by one, she destroyed her own Hocrux to meet her family in the afterlife.**

**A few steadfast believe that Lord and Lady Hufflepuff created a Hocrux each, wanting to spend an eternity together.**

**To this day, it is still unknown which of the stories might be true.**

**Though being intended to preserve a beloved's life, Hocruxes do belong in the category of the Dark Arts because of the deed that is needed to be done so one can create a Hocrux. To do that-**

When turning the page Harry was unable to read any further because the rest of the page was covered by something that looked remarkable like blood.

Annoyed that he couldn't read the last few pages of the thin book, Harry closed it. Perhaps it hadn't been the best idea to bring this book along with him to the table. But the writer had been one of Voldemort's ancestors and the person had been smart enough to write it in Parselscript. To others it would probably look like something a kindergarten child had drawn, but while Harry found the letters a little strange, they were indeed readable.

Glancing over at the Hufflepuff students, those few that were there at this time, though whether they were awake or not was debatable. How many of them knew of this? Considering that Hufflepuff was the house for the friendly and helpful, he doubted that they were aware, it was after all not exactly common knowledge, and Harry sincerely doubted the wisdom of spreading the word, not that many would believe him anyway.

Something pointy poked him in the side, making Harry jump and bump into Theo, startling the reader so he accidentally knocked over a goblet with pumping juice as he dropped his book, spreading the liquid over the table.

Ignoring the slight throbbing in his side, Harry turned towards the one responsible for the mess that had already disappeared, thanks to house-elves and their wonderful magic.

"Good morning." Harry doubted that he was the only one who twisted at Pansy's sing song voice. It was too early in the morning to act so full of energy. As if to disprove his belief, Pansy started preparing her morning meal humming softly under her breath while doing so.

"How can you be so bloody active in the morning?" Judging from Draco's outburst from across the table Harry hadn't been the only who harboured that kind of thoughts.

The homework had been packed away, either they were already done, or they had decided that the risk of more mishaps were too great as more people started coming through the doors to the Great Hall.

Having tucked his own book away, Harry settled for watching the arriving people. Even if there was less than half an hour left before classes would start, people looked far from reading to face a new day. One boy at the Gryffindor table was sleeping with his head popped up against his hand, and his elbow planted in a bowl.

When he was poked again, Harry refrained from jumping like he had done before, instead settling for glaring at Pansy, who couldn't even do him the favour of looking like it was even affecting him a little bit. And to his disappointment the spoon she had used to poke him with hadn't magically melted, thus leaving Harry with the feeling that this would not turn out to be a good day for him.

Seeing that she had his attention, Pansy's face was lit up by a smile, only helping Harry to feel even surer that he was correct about his prediction. "Honestly, Harry, you need to eat something. Draco said that you didn't eat lunch yesterday, and I didn't see you at either breakfast or dinner. Did you not eat at all?" Already as she spoke, Pansy pulled his plate over to her and started loading food on it.

Ignoring Pansy Harry turned his gaze to the bewitched ceiling above their heads. True, he had slept through breakfast yesterday, and lunch had been far away from his mind when it rolled around.

Voldemort had made up for that after carrying Harry back to his bed. Not only had he used a spell to prevent Harry from leaving the bed, but Dobby had been summoned, and had been explained that Harry had missed a full day's worth of meals. That had made Dobby start a cooking spree and when Dobby had returned with the food, Voldemort had left with the warning that it would be in Harry's own best interest to eat every last bit of food that had been made for him.

Dobby had only been too happy with ensuring that Harry followed that order.

The plate was placed in front of him, this time filled with a wide variety of food. Lifting the butter soaked pancakes, Harry raised an eyebrow at the sight of bacon with sausages, some chopped fruit and fried eggs. Why was it that people seemed to believe that he needed to be fed much more than he felt he was able to eat?

Twisting around Harry seized Pansy's arm before she was able to poke him again with the handle of her spoon. "I'm not eating all that." He still felt somewhat full after the whole ordeal from yesterday.

"Living beings need to eat, and the last time I checked, you still had a pulse." Theo chipped up from his right, making Harry let go of Pansy's wrist and hold his hands up in surrender.

"What is with people being such mother hens recently?" He grumbled, but picked up the silverware and started eating. Dealing with Pansy on her own could be hard enough, but Harry didn't feel like dealing with being attacked from two sides because of something so unimportant as his eating habit.

Silence settled over their group, occasionally broken when Gregory and Vincent joined them and started eating like this was their last meal. Though shovelling food into their mouths they managed to make it look like they were following the manners they had been taught, just in a speed that seemed impossible to mimic.

The peace was broken, when the owls arrived. The sound of hundreds of fluttering wings drew peoples' attention upwards. Even Harry wasn't able to avoid taking a quick glance, fascinated by the sight the many different birds made, concealing the ceiling from view as they flew around, trying to locate the people they were supposed to deliver their post to.

Harry found his eyes drawn to a falcon, the only one of its kind among the many owls. Frowning he looked around, trying to figure out who the bird could be looking for. Owls was the norm when it came to deliver something. They were loyal, Muggles thought nothing of it when they happened to catch sight of their fly, though it sometimes happened at rather unusual times of the day and with rather many birds moving through the same area. And, other than the odd owl, they tended to be rather protective of what they were delivering.

So, whoever was the owner of the falcon, had used a lot of money on buying the bird and ensuring that it had the necessary training to keep it on pair with owls.

For the second time that morning a goblet, and several bowls within reach, were knocked over, this time because of the falcon that had landed in the middle of Harry's plate, sending bits of food flying around.

Mesmerized Harry stared into amber coloured eyes, barely daring to breathe. Up this close the falcon was certainly a sight to behold. Its feathers were darker than normal for its kind, making it look almost black and Harry was fairly sure that no falcon grew this big on their own.

While he was occupied admiring the bird, the falcon returned the favour, looking as if it was trying to decide whether he would make do as today's meal or not.

"What a sweet little birdie you are." Harry broke his staring contest with the falcon in favour of looking at Pansy, wondering if she had lost her mind as she cooed at the bird, reaching out to touch it.

Harry didn't need his vision to foresee what happened next.

When Pansy's hand was close enough, the falcon attacked, its beak snapping close around the soft flesh between her thumb and forefinger. A loud shriek of pain made Harry cover his ears, fearing that he might lose his hearing sense if he did not do so. The bird let go of Pansy' hand, as if startled by the amount of noise she was making, and quickly placed itself out of the reach of Pansy's wavering arms.

"It bit me! I'm bleeding! The bloodstains won't ever go off my clothes!" She wailed as Blaise got up and around the table. Making soothing noise, he grabbed one of the few remaining clean napkins and wrapped it around the wound to stop the blood from spreading. Once sure that it would stay, Blaise got her on her feet and started helping her out of the Great Hall, probably to the Hospital Wing, to get the hand looked at and healed.

Now where the duo was gone, Harry's gaze went to the head table. They seemed to have been watching the disturbance, but none of them had moved to help. Though Harry was a little angry on Pansy's behalf, he also understood their lack of action. As a pureblood Pansy really should have known better than attempting to touch a delivery bird that didn't know her. No matter how cute she claimed it to be.

"Scarhead, stop being traumatised about a little blood and do something about the bird. Some of us have actually a time limit to finish our breakfast." Looking down Harry saw that the falcon had moved closer to his place, using its talons to shred the food to pieces. With its wings spread out it looked around as if to dare people to reach for any of the food nearby. After seeing what happened to Pansy when she had wanted to pet it, Harry doubted that anyone would be stupid enough to try.

Exactly how was he supposed to get the letter bound around the falcon's leg without losing a few fingers in the process?

Theo proved to be no help when all he did was holding the book in front of his face when Harry turned to him for help. "You might as well just do it. The falcon is well trained and will not allow anyone but the receiver to take the letter, anyone else will be attacked."

Eyeing the falcon uncertainly, Harry couldn't help but be interested by what Theo had said. "Do you know the bird?" Though he tried, Harry couldn't recall having seen the falcon before, he would definitely remember seeing something so outstanding as this one before.

Out of the corner or his eyes Harry saw Theo's small head shake, not taking his eyes of the falcon that returned the look with a flat glare, clearly not impressed with having to wait. "My father trains falcons and exotic birds for delivering purposes. And while it is not in my main area of interest, I have followed his line of work close enough to be able to recognize a bird he has bred, this is one of those."

So he had been right when he assumed that whoever owned the bird had to be rich, and the falcon didn't like to be spoken about like it was a thing rather than a living being, if the look it threw Theo was anything to go by. Or perhaps it just disliked humans in general, which seemed rather likely. Was it a trait Theo's father made sure that was trained into the birds before he sold them of?

Turning back to the falcon, that had started to look positively murderous by now, Harry reached out for the letter attached to its leg. As soon as it was freed from its burden, the falcon gathered several pieces of bacon with its beak before it took off.

Expecting the falcon to leave, Harry was surprised when it didn't follow the remaining owls out of the Great Hall. Instead it flew to the Head table, where several professors were watching the bird. It landed on the back of the chair where Voldemort was seated. The man reached out, petting the falcon as if he hadn't just seen it bite a student moments before. Harry bowed his head to hide his smile when the falcon snapped its beak at Voldemort, dropping crumbles of bacon onto the Dark lord's head. It seemed that not even Voldemort was able to sweeten the temperamental bird.

The fact that he kept from laughing out loud can be counted as an accomplishment.

Curious to know what Voldemort wanted from him, but apparently couldn't take the tour to the table to tell him in person, Harry unfolded the letter.

**Wait for me in your quarter at 4 O'clock; we will be leaving the castle.**

Harry turned the parchment, hoping that more would appear on the other side. But the parchment held no hint of what it was that Voldemort had in mind. If it wasn't because the falcon had flown over to Voldemort afterwards, he would not even have known who the letter was from.

Frowning Harry speculated what the reason for all this secrecy could be. Looking up and catching Voldemort's eyes proved to be no help, as the man merely lifted his goblet and drunk from it in response to Harry's lifted eyebrow. Smirking at him, Voldemort returned to his conversation with Severus, who was looking somewhat stiff to those who knew how to look close enough to see the signs.

Since he would be given no clues for what would happen, Harry hoped that time would pass quickly so he could get his answers. Already, Harry knew that this was going to be a long day.

**)00(**

"Are you sure that all this is necessary?" His fingers were itching after brushing over his clothes and perhaps also loosen his collar a little, but after having been slapped over the fingers by Draco plenty of times by now Harry had learned his lesson and kept his hands still by his side.

He was really starting to regret asking Draco to help him get ready for this. After the blond had caught a glimpse of the letter's contents Draco hadn't stopped pestering him until Harry had caved in.

Truth to be told, Harry also felt grateful, he had had no idea of what he was supposed to wear.

As it was, it looked like someone had cast a Bombarda Maximum inside his room, robes and clothes of different kinds were spread all over, leaving no surface free. How his green sleeveless shirt had ended on top of his wardrobe, Harry wasn't quite sure about.

From where he was kneeling behind him, making sure that the robe Harry was wearing folded the right places, Draco tisked. "Of course, Scarhead. Since we have no information about what will happen, we need you to be prepared for a little of everything. I'm sure he will take you out eating. With the time the Dark lord has set, it would be stupid to assume anything else. But, we have no idea about where he will be taking you, will there be other people, or is it an intimate dinner between just the two of you?" And will you be eating indoors, considering today's weather; he might have chosen somewhere outdoors. Salazar, we don't even know if there will be other activities, prior or past dinner, if anything I would say that we should get you some new clothes just to be on the safe side, but with so little time at hands, we have to make do with what you already have. I need to do your hair."

Rolling his eyes, Harry dutifully sat down, allowing Draco to free his hair from the captivity of the towel that had been wrapped around it and get to work.

It seemed like a test of patience to sit still while Draco was working. Harry felt like he should be bouncing around on the walls to work off some of the nervous energy that had gathered inside him throughout the day. He would have done so, if not because he would be killed by Draco for undoing his hard work.

No words were exchanged as Draco did his hair, Harry's eyes falling closed in enjoyment at Draco's ministrations. Draco could make a career out of doing other people's hair. People would pay lots of money just to sit through this, and it probably would not matter what the end result was, the customers would be a too big pile of goo to do anything but pay.

Harry placed a hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter. He could imagine Draco's reaction too well if he just happened to mention his current thoughts. The fuss Draco would kick up afterwards would definitely be worth the look on his face upon hearing this.

"There, all done and ready to go." Draco proclaimed, reaching around Harry to yank off the cloth of the full body mirror he had conjured before he had even started to look over Harry's clothes.

Curious to see the result of Draco's efforts Harry stood, taking a small step closer to the mirror as he couldn't take his eyes off the figure staring back at him.

He was wearing an open black robe with a jade green trim. Beneath them he wore black fitting trousers and a dark green shirt with long sleeves that kept close to his arms instead of those loose sleeved once that people seemed to fancy at the moment. The fabric felt like silk when Harry gave in to the urge and let his fingers run over it. Strange, he couldn't recall buying this when he had been out with the Lestranges. And while it was nice, it was definitely not something that he would wear on normal days, fearing that he might ruin the clothes. Though, the dragon leather boots felt rather nice on his feet.

Done with admiring the outfit Harry let his eyes wander upwards, interested in seeing what had been done to his hair. Draco had pulled the hair back and gathered it in a low tail. Turning his head to the side, Harry stared at the small braids Draco had made. They weren't many but there were enough of them for them to be noticeable in the tail.

A clock chimed, signalling that it had just turned four p.m. Glancing at Draco with the help of the mirror Harry opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted before he could form any words. "Get going, you're already late. Don't you know that you don't let Dark Lords wait?"

Before Harry understood what was going on, he found himself ushered out of his room and into the living room, where someone else already was. Draco bowed low to Voldemort, who was the only other person in there, and left, but not before throwing Harry a wink over his shoulder.

And then they were alone.

Standing stiff Harry eyed Voldemort, noticing that the man had chosen to wear dark green, almost black robes for the evening. While Harry was regarding Voldemort, the favour was returned, but Voldemort's face revealed nothing about his thoughts.

"_Where is Severus_?" Harry asked. Nowhere he looked seemed to be hiding the Potions master. Severus had been there when Draco had dragged him into his room to prepare for now, and Harry knew that Severus had nothing planned at this time. So where was Severus?

"_Not exactly the kind of greeting I had expected_." Voldemort said, being much closer than he had been just moments before, having moved while Harry had tried to figure out Severus' whereabouts.

Rearing back Harry managed a small smile, hoping that it would hide the bubbling nervousness he had started to feel upon laying eyes on Voldemort. "_You look, eh, nice. Where are we going_?" He asked, unable to contain his curiosity any longer. It had buggered him since breakfast and now where he was close to finding out, Harry found it even harder to stop wondering what they would do for this evening.

"_You almost sound like you cannot wait to find out_." Voldemort's eyes were running up and down his body. Harry decided that it didn't really matter. He liked that Draco had done a good job. And why should he care about what Voldemort thought? If the man had wanted something special, he should have been more specific about what they would be doing.

Straightening his back Harry scowled at Voldemort. "_If you hadn't been so bloody secretive_-" Harry stopped himself. He didn't want to say anything he would end up regretting. But he satisfied himself with the knowledge that he could get his revenge over Voldemort, if that was what he wanted. He might not be a wizard, but it didn't mean that he was entirely helpless.

That was one of the good things with having connections that didn't end with magical humans. Ghosts were able to get in almost everywhere, and a poltergeist was always willing to help, as long as it ensured him a good laugh for his efforts. "_I believe that this is something that you will enjoy_."

Remembering the manners Severus had beaten into his head through the years Harry widened his smile a little. "_I appreciate the effort you went through arranging this_." Or perhaps he was supposed to say this once the evening was over? He had never really paid much attention to this kind of things, only enough to get him by in the normal situations. It might be time to refresh the lessons.

Hopefully it could wait until tomorrow without him embarrassing himself too much today.

"_Good, now come here. If we delay our departure any longer, we will be late_." Harry fisted his hands, feeling a brief touch of anger at Voldemort's dismissal of what he had said. But then again, maybe it was he who had done it wrongly, and Voldemort was simply trying to avoid embarrassing him.

Harry found his feet moving without his brain having to tell them to do so. As soon as he was close enough, Voldemort laid a hand on his back and pulled him flush against his body, for the first time he noticed the blood red rose Voldemort had been holding in one hand.

Harry found himself grateful for this when he felt a pull in his stomach, signalling that a Portkey had been activated despite the fact that it shouldn't have been able inside the wards of Hogwarts.

The first thing Harry noticed upon landing was how warm it had suddenly become. The air was different too, thick and wet. Harry felt the urge to stick out his tongue to see if drops of water would form on it, but refrained from doing so.

Voldemort's hand was still on his back, albeit noticeable lower than it had been before, but Harry didn't complain as he stood pressed against Voldemort's chest. The closeness felt nice, that much would he admit to himself, and without Voldemort's support he would probably have been sprawled out on the ground right now. On the other hand, he would probably have been better off if Voldemort had warned him or hadn't pulled a stunt that should not be possible.

Speaking of Portkeys. "_How was it possible? The wards should have stopped it, made sure that the Portkeys couldn't even be activated. Does this mean that the greatness of Hogwarts is just a rumour, and that the only reason that no one has pulled such a stunt before is because everyone believes in a bloody rumour_?" Perhaps he was overreacting, but Harry could easily see how someone would use such a weakness if they gained knowledge about it. "_Or_-"

Voldemort swept down and stopped further words from leaving Harry by sealing his lips with his own.

When Voldemort withdrew, Harry followed along, not quite ready to break the kiss. But seeing as Voldemort was taller than him, the man was able to pull his mouth up and out of Harry's reach, much to the seer's annoyance. "_You didn't answer my question_." He prided himself that he was able to keep his voice even, even with how breathless he felt.

"_Stop_ _worrying. I am the only one able to do this_." The way this was said, made Harry inclined to believe the words.

But in the future, he would let someone look things over before he accepted them. Though the only post he had received had been from Voldemort, who didn't have a reason to kidnap him, so Harry guessed that it kind of made the whole thing fruitless.

"_As for where we are, why don't you take a look around_?" Encouraged by Voldemort's words Harry turned around, his eyes going wide as he took in their new surroundings. Voldemort's hand pressed lightly against his back before travelling upwards, following the pleasant shivers that ran up through his spine before stopping at his right shoulder.

Harry's eyes darted around, taking in the wide variety of green, and the flowers and fruits which seemed to jump into sight with their many and bright colours. Leaves and branches moved, and since there was no wind Harry guessed that it was because of animals that stayed just out of eyesight.

Were they used to humans, or were they in such a remote part of the world that animals rarely, if ever, were disturbed by humans? Both options seemed rather likely.

"_Is that a Movens Comedentis_?" Without a second thought Harry stepped away from Voldemort and towards the small white flower with black stripes that grew at the food of a dying tree. Fishing up a small shovel and a jar, Harry got down on his knees and placed the objects on the soft ground next to him.

Digging around in his pockets Harry made a noise in the back of his throat when he found the Dragon hide gloves he had been looking for. While expensive, they were perfect for this kind of work.

After putting on the gloves Harry sat at work, his tongue poking out between his lips in concentration. He would have to take the whole plant, otherwise it would unleash its attack and die after a couple of minutes, rendering it absolutely useless.

When he dug the hand shovel into the moist ground, the flower head lifted, slowly rotating as it tried to locate whoever dared to disturb its peace. But the head hadn't opened yet which Harry counted as his luck.

Harry continued digging until he was sure that he had gotten deep enough to he could attempt moving the flower. Shifting so he was crouched instead of kneeling, just in case that he needed a quick getaway, which was the position he should probably have been in from the beginning now where he thought about it, Harry moved the jar so he only had to move the plant a short distance.

He took a deep breath to collect himself and stop his hands from shaking so much. Biting down on his tongue, Harry made a final dig, and used the shovel to get the flower free of the soil. With the other hand he tilted the container so he could easier, and faster, get the plant into it. As soon as this was done, Harry moved faster, the flower head was now pointing directly at him and the petals were slowly opening, signalling that the plant was getting ready for its attack.

Harry put the lid on, making sure that it was securely closed before he dared to let out a breath. A little shaken he stood, barely even daring to believe his own luck. This was exercising. Just wait until Draco heard about this, and Harry couldn't wait to show Severus his finding.

He nearly jumped out of his skin when a finger touched his neck in a sliding motion, reminding Harry that he was not alone.

Feeling like his heart was about to beat its way out of his chest with the fast pace it was going on, Harry took his time to remove the gloves and put the tools back into his pockets. It was a good thing that he hadn't listened to Draco about not brining basic harvesting tools along. To think that he could have missed such a treat.

Unable to prolong it any longer Harry had to stand and face Voldemort, the jar containing the plant clutched tightly to his chest. Voldemort said nothing, but the look in his eyes compelled Harry to explain his behaviour. "_It's a Movens Comedentis. They are incredible rare and can only be used in a few, but very strong healing potions. They leach of trees' lives and as soon as they are done with one, they move on to a new one_." And by the look of it the tree the flower had been dining on, didn't have long before all its life was completely sucked out. The Movens Comedentis would have moved on in a few hours and there was no way of telling where it might have gone considering that it could travel a surprising long distance before it needed to find itself a new food source. "_Furthermore it spits out acid when facing a threat. Funnily enough the Movens Comadentis is used in the potion that counters the flower's acid. Without it the acid would spread through its victim's body until it reaches something vital and kills you._"

This was most likely the male version of the plant, they tended to act slower than the female one, which was rather easy to aggravate.

Ignoring the dangerous look on Voldemort's face Harry frowned, looking down at the jar between his hands. "_But it can only be found in one place, what are we doing in the Amazon jungle_?" He glanced nervously at the ground below their feet, easily remembering his short visit to the Muggle world. But the flower he had just picked wouldn't get anywhere near that kind of grass, so he supposed that they would be safe. It didn't mean that he wouldn't keep an eye out if they were going to be moving away from here.

"In the future, do refrain from pulling stunts that put your health at an unnecessary risk." Merely nodding Harry was by Voldemort's side as the older man started walking away from the small clearing they had arrived in.

Right now Harry felt that nothing would be able to shatter his good mood.

When they were under the trees and away from the sun's harsh rays Harry quickly lost any feeling of where they were going. How Voldemort managed to seem to know where to go seemed like a mystery to Harry at first.

But soon it became clear that they weren't wandering around aimlessly. If he hadn't known better, he would have said that they were following an animal track, but looking further Harry saw how the grass parted slightly, allowing them an easier passage without being evident if one didn't look closely enough.

Harry had started sweating not long after they had begun walking, and he was swearing Draco into the seven pits of Hell. The outfit the blond had picked for him might be fashionable, but it was meant for a dinner party and not for wandering around in the middle of a jungle.

It hadn't taken him long to shred the robe, having slung it over his shoulder so it wouldn't bother him, and he was steadfast ignoring the sideway glances that Voldemort seemed to keep giving him, making Harry wonder if it was not a better idea to put the robe back on and hope that the heat didn't end him before they reached their destination.

Suddenly his ears were bombarded by an onslaught of sounds that did not belong to a remote part of the world. Harry supposed that they had wandered through a ward without him noticing it. It was the only way he could explain how a Quidditch pitch had appeared not even seven feet away from them.

Taking a closer look at the construction Harry realised that it looked like nothing he had seen, neither in real life nor in the Quidditch magazines Draco had shared with him. It lacked any of the decorations usually used for that kind of places, meant to cheer up the fans.

And furthermore, the tribunes were made of granite instead of wood. Hopefully someone had thought of spelling the tribunes with cushioning charms and other safety measures, otherwise he would pity the one who flew into one of those thing by full speed on a Firebolt.

If nothing else it probably served as a good motivation for players to not fly too close to those things unless they wanted to spend some time with a Healer for an unknown amount of time.

His gaze went upwards to the cloud free sky. Far above their head a Quidditch game was going on, the players being nothing more than small dots and moving with a speed that was nearly too fast to follow with the unaided eye.

Making sure to follow Voldemort Harry didn't take his eyes off the ongoing game. There were too many players in the air for there only to be one team. But if a game was going on there was bound to be people watching it, and yet there was not a single person on the tribunes.

Puzzled by this Harry walked straight into Voldemort, having been too busy with watching the flyers to notice that the other had come to a stop. Moving his arms like windmills Harry regained his balance before he could fall. They were now standing at the edge of the Quidditch pitch, and Harry had to crane his neck back in a nearly impossible angle so he didn't miss what was going on above them.

By the look of it the game had been going on for a while. There were two dots that seemed to be further up than the rest of the group, probably the two Seekers on the look-out for the Snitch. Until it was caught the game would not end and Harry had heard about games that had gone on without end for days because the Seekers were unable to locate the flying golden ball. By how much energy those players were putting into the game Harry would say that it was far from having lasted so long yet.

Without being able to help it, Harry's eyes moved from the players and around the stadium. Where was the Snitch? Somehow it would seem logical that it would keep close to the ground with everybody else being so far up in the air.

Spotting something golden wavering around the bottom of one of the teams' goal posts, Harry knew he had been right. Now he just wanted to see how long it would take for the Seekers to find the Snitch and try to keep an eye on the ball in the meantime.

That thought had barely been finished before one of the spots dived down, closely followed by a second one, and both grew in size by the millisecond.

Soon it became clear to Harry that while both Seekers had seen the Snitch and were intending to catch it, if they kept up their current speed they would be unable to pull up before they collided with the ground.

Clutching the jar tightly between his hands Harry felt that he did barely dare to breathe as he watched the two race to the ground and the Snitch that was still flying lazily around the goal posts. Even if the Seekers didn't hit the ground, it was most likely that they would fly into one of the goals. Both possibilities were bound to be painful.

A strong wind whirled the low cut grass and made Harry gasp when one of the Seekers successfully pulled up the broom so he was flying horizontal with the ground.

The crash that sounded at the same time made Harry regret that he hadn't closed his eyes. The other Seeker hadn't managed to pull the same stunt and had crashed with the ground.

It had happened far away enough so Harry couldn't see the actual injuries, but Harry knew that it didn't mean that they were not there. The player laid in a heap of limbs, and from the awkward angle the broom handle was sticking up, Harry knew that the broom wouldn't be flying again.

A team of medi-wizards were already hurrying over to the downed player, and Harry's gaze went to the second Seeker, who had pulled off the dive successfully, and had also caught the Snitch if the way he was holding his fist up in the air was any indication.

A whistle sounded, letting the other players know that the game had ended, and all as one they headed for the ground, clearly used to following the wordless command. The fact that they were even able to hear it from so far impressed Harry.

Not long after that, thirteen players, Seeker number one had already been carried away on a stretcher, were all on the ground, holding their brooms in hands, they shook hands and six of them headed for what Harry assumed were the changing rooms while the rest were walking their way.

As soon as they were close enough for him to recognise some of the players, Harry felt his jaw drop. "_Is that the Bulgarian national team_?" Disbelief laced his voice as Harry found himself unable to take his eyes off the sweaty players. His respect for the players rose a notch when none of them reacted to hearing him speaking Parseltongue.

"_It is, since I have a meeting with the Bulgarian Minister, I thought that you would appreciate to get a chance to meet them in person. You can always show your gratitude once we are alone_." Harry hoped that the redness colouring his face could be written off as an effect from the heat. But the smug look Voldemort sent him told Harry that at least one person knew the truth.

But any biting response he might have made up would have to wait until later, the Quidditch players had now moved within earshot and while they would not be able to understand the language of snakes, Harry had no interest in arguing in front of witnesses.

The gang stopped directly in front of them and Harry felt himself freeze up under the scrutiny he suddenly found himself under.

Trying to stand tall, Harry's eyes were drown to the Seeker who had managed to hospitalise his opponent for the time being, no doubt that the other would be back on their feet in no time, and who had been called one of the world's best Seekers at the early age of seventeen.

Viktor Krum was a tall, sallow and thin man, not even the Quidditch uniform he wore could hide that. The dark hair was cut short, nearly to the scalp, and the equally dark eyes were dancing with excitement over the recent game. The curved nose was large; he had a sharp profile and thick black eyebrows, that kind of reminded Harry of caterpillars.

Despite how graceful while flying on a broomstick it was obvious that Krum was round-shouldered and more than a little duck footed on the ground. Harry supposed that it didn't matter for the fans as long as Krum kept catching the Snitch and the team won their games.

All seven faces were blank, and yet Harry couldn't help but feel that they didn't want to babysit him. It wouldn't surprise Harry if Voldemort had used political power to arrange this. And while he was grateful he wasn't sure he wanted to be left alone with a group where most of them showed as much hostility as they dared with a Dark lord being there.

Harry made a startled yelp when he was whirled around and pulled into a possessive kiss by Voldemort. Keeping his eyes open, Harry noticed the look Voldemort gave the players behind him. It was a clear warning as not to let anything happen to him.

Voldemort's tongue ran over his lips before the man pulled away. "_Make sure that you enjoy yourself. Once I am done with the meeting we will go eating_." Harry could only nod.

He stood as rooted to the spot while watching Voldemort leave. It was only when Voldemort went in among the trees and disappeared from view that Harry turned, figuring that he might as well see what would happen now.

Whatever hope Harry might have had for this deflated when he saw that the team had already walked away and was mounting their brooms with not even a glance in his direction.

It was quite clear to Harry that they didn't want anything to do with him.

Shaking his head Harry went for the nearest spectator stand, climbing the stairs and found a seat where he would be in the shadows. It truly didn't matter. It wasn't like he was a fan of the Bulgarian team anyway, and he could entertain himself just fine. And when Voldemort returned Harry would act like he had enjoyed the outing and hope that his disappointment of being ignored like he was not even there wasn't picked up.

So with that decision Harry sat the jar on the seat next to him and found a roll together with a quill and some ink. This way he could revise the theory of some of the potions he knew Severus had planned for him to brew in the next week.

Soon Harry became absorbed in his work, forgetting that there existed others in the world and only paused occasionally to ensure that the jar with the plant was still standing where he had placed it.

"Oi, are you writing down our training tactics to sell the info to the highest bidder, kiddo?" A slender, pale hand plucked the roll out of his hands before he was able to hide his notes.

Levelling the upside down hanging woman a glare Harry held out his hand. "Give it back." He spoke quietly, though tempted to hit the red-headed woman with something hard. But with the container of the plant being the only thing within reach Harry opted to wait for a better opportunity. Maybe he should simply lunge for the scroll and hope that the advantage of a surprise attack would be on his side.

As if sending the road his thoughts had taken Miss Ivano made her broom roll around so her feet were pointing towards the ground. "This are not notes on the drill that Hell Vasily puts us through, in fact, it looks like Potions homework, just more complicated than what I did when I still went to school, so you some kind of a genius kid, kiddo?" His eyebrow made a small twist in reaction to the nickname he apparently had been bestowed with.

"You can't be that much older than me." To his surprise she threw her head back and laughed. As she had also lowered the arm holding the scroll it allowed Harry to reclaim his work and stove it into one of his pockets where she wouldn't be able to take it from him again.

When she leaned down and ruffled his hair, Harry slapped the hand away. "Stop treating me like a child, I'm not some kind of toy you can fool around with as you want to!" He finally snapped, picking up his jar and descending down the stairs. Maybe if he sat a little away from the pitch he would be able to work in peace.

Upon reaching the ground Harry found his planning futile. The only woman on the National team, Clara Ivano was already waiting for him there. Considering that he was on two feet and she had the aid of a Firebolt it was clear to him which one of them was able to move the fastest. Meaning that he couldn't get rid of her by running away from her. "Is there something you want?" He asked, stepping aside and around the hovering woman. If he acted cold she might get bored and simply leave him alone.

She turned the broom around and forward so she was able to stay by his side as he walked. It didn't even seem like the other players would take mercy on him and call the red-haired menace back into the drills they were doing. In fact, it was almost like they hadn't noticed that she was missing.

"So, which one of us is your idol? My guess would be Viktor, he is the one with the most fans, not that I complain. Being the only woman on a National team has its benefits." She said, searching Harry's face for some kind of a reaction.

"I'm not really a Quidditch fan." He admitted. Honestly, there were people who went far more up in the sport than he did. And if Harry had to choose he would pick simply flying over Quidditch at any day.

He turned his head away to hide his smirk at the look of disbelief on the Chaser's face. "Why did you tell your sugar daddy that you wanted to meet us if you aren't a fan?"

When Harry didn't feel like he would break into laughter he turned his head back so he could still look at Ivano. "Actually, I didn't know where we would be going before I came here." He kicked a knoll of dirt, though Voldemort probably meant it well this wasn't what Harry had expected when he had gotten the letter. And he still had to figure out how he was supposed to thank Voldemort. Several options came to his mind, and not all of them would be exactly pleasant for the other man.

"You are different from those others who are allowed to come and meet our team. Usually they con their sugar daddies into bringing them here so they can droll over us celebrities." She made no attempt to hide her opinion about those people.

This was the second time she had used that term. Though Harry doubted that there was malice in the words, considering it was Voldemort she used it on. Those who started calling him names of a sort the Dark lord did not approve of either had a death wish or were an escapee from the Mental ward at St. Mungo's, it irked him that he didn't know what it meant. "What is a sugar daddy?"

For a moment she stared at him as if only now seeing him for the first time, before doubling over and a sharp laughter spilled over her lips. She nearly fell off her broom as well. Harry took a step away from her, giving her a wary glance. Was she bipolar or something?

She stopped laughing, whipping an imaginary tear away with a gloved finger. "You just didn't say that." Seeing that Harry's expression didn't change her smile died a little. "You're actually serious, jeez kiddo, just how sheltered did you grow up?" Now where she asked, Harry started thinking.

Depending on how one looked at it, he supposed that he had lived a kind of sheltered life. The Dursleys had kept him away from other people, probably hoping that if normal people didn't know he existed they might wake up one morning and find that he had just been a part of their limited imagination.

With the Order he had been kept away from others bare his watchers once they had learned that he had absolutely no intention about acting like a human.

Even at Hogwarts he could claim that he had been wrapped in cotton wool, albeit to a great lesser degree than any of the other places. But in his hope of keeping him safe from the Order, and others who would use his ability, Harry supposed that even Severus had managed to keep him sheltered, though he doubted that it had been done on purpose.

He was pushed from the side. There wasn't much force behind it, but it being unexpected made Harry tilt dangerously before he regained his footing. "Are you crazy?" He continued, not interested in hearing her actually confirm his theory. "This." He held up the jar, making sure that she had actually seen it before once again hold it close to his chest. "Is a Movens Comedentis, very rare and very dangerous." He would have carried on; if not for the way she had started looking at him. If not because he knew it was impossible, he would say that she had made stars home in her eyes, and it wasn't meant as a compliment.

"Seriously, kiddo, where were you when I had to take my N.E. exams? You could have gotten me top score on both Herbology and Potions. What else can you?" He allowed a small blush to grace his cheeks, his previous anger with the woman already forgotten. It was nice to be complimented for something other than his ability to peek into a possible future.

Not wanting the uncomfortable atmosphere to return, Harry wracked his brain, trying to remember something. "Well, I suppose that I know something about Care of Magic Creatures too." Severus had decide that if he was to be his assistant, he might as well take the measures to ensure that he was not a hindrance for the man's work.

For the unnumbered time that day, Harry was nearly knocked of his feet. This time when the already insane declared Chaser leapt off her broom and lumped her arms around his neck. At the same time she planted her feet solid on the ground, making sure that Harry wouldn't actually fall. To his despair, Ivano was one of those who were abnormally tall, probably born like this, and thus the side of his head was pressed against a rather noticeable part of her female anatomy. "You're so perfect. I plan on putting you into my pocket, steal a Time-Turner and use your knowledge to actually pass those thrice dammed tests." The speed she was speaking with made Harry dizzy from trying to figure out what she was actually saying.

He was pretty sure that what she planned wasn't legal or even a possibility. Wasn't there something about having to avoid being seen by your past self if you were allowed to use a Time-Turner? And she had sat in on the exams, wouldn't it be weird for her to not have any memories of them until she actually went back in time to take them?

And he really didn't fancy having to wait years, hidden, until this caught up with this time.

He was slowly getting a migraine by thinking of all the trouble that would pop up by going back in time.

"By the way, I'm Clara Ivano, Chaser and the only woman who's gotten on the Bulgarian National team in the last fifty years." She offered him a gloved hand and despite the awkward angle it came from, Harry managed to shake it, feeling her good mood transfer to him. She might actually not be that bad for a crazy person.

"Harry Potter." He merely said.

"Oh my God, you're Harry Potter, you're that seer." An ungloved hand was showed into his face, making Harry nearly cross-eyed as he tried to lean back, only to find himself held in place. "So, what do you see in my future?" That cleared up any doubts he might have had in his mind.

This person was definitely bat shit crazy.

Beneath his clothes he felt the shrunken Diablo move around, silent for once, but ready to attack should there be a need for it.

**)00(**

Sneaking from the dungeon up to the third story was embarrassingly easy, especially so since it had not even been necessary to put on his cloak. So far, the only one he had met was Peeves, who had taken one look at the thing Harry was carrying and had started crackling like a mad, the sound not even muffled when the poltergeist placed transparent hands over his mouth. The only reason that the poltergeist hadn't tagged along was because he had his own plans for tonight. And Harry really didn't need witnesses, not even his pranking companion, to what he had in mind.

Determined Harry continued forward, stubbornly not thinking about the plan in case that he would lose his courage before actually doing it.

Just before rounding the corner that led to the corridor where Voldemort resided, Harry hesitated, starting to doubt whether this idea actually was as good as he first had thought it would be. There were so many ways that this could go wrong, be misunderstood or backfire at him.

Then again, the look on Voldemort's face if his little surprise was a success was far too tempting for Harry to ignore.

With a ship in his steps Harry went down the corridor, the rope in his hands bouncing in tune with his steps, though he did tip toe when he went past the portrait of a sleeping Salazar Slytherin.

**Viktor Krum's appearance was cited from PotterWiki **

**Movens Comedentis is not a plant that really exists.**

**This chapter was typed and posted by the future ruler of the world, Mortimus. Unfortunately I accidentally spilled coffee on a great part of the notes HuskyWalker had entrusted me with, thus the huge gap between Harry meeting Clara and him sneaking around with a rope.**

**Now I will go into hiding, because HuskyWalker has promised to murder me with a rusty spoon for spilling coffee on her notes. **


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

Warning Slash

**Beta: angelhitomie**

Something was wrong.

The transfer from sleep to wakefulness happened fast and smoothly. This was supposed to be one of those mornings where he could allow himself to lie in before he would have to get up and conquer the trouble he would be facing today.

And now someone had dared to disturb his rest long before he was ready to rise.

From the way his arms and legs had been spread out he would say that the ropes around his wrists and ankles were bound to the bedposts. He didn't waste any energy to free himself with physical means. Whoever had managed to bind him would not make such a newbie's mistake.

He was still in his bed, which Voldemort counted as a positive point, seeing as it meant that he was still at Hogwarts. This person was good enough to pass the many layers of wards and magic that protected the residents of Hogwarts. But it seemed that the intruder's abilities were not good enough to get out again with Voldemort as his captive.

"It had been a while since someone dared an attempt on my life, though none of them have gotten this far or tried this kind of approach. My compliments for your planning." No answer came but that was not what had Voldemort worried. The person would start talking soon enough.

But his magic was feeling sluggishly, almost like it was asleep. He could still feel it, but his magic was out of his reach. And the silken fabric over his eyes hindered him in seeing anything, making him depend on his senses of hearing, smell and touch. He had been in far worse situations, but that was not the same as saying that he would not be punishing the one responsible for this as soon as he was free.

For now, he would keep calm and not allow any signs that not being able to use his magic left him with a big handicap.

"I assume that there is a reason behind your inactivity. You are someone I am familiar with, and rather good as well, otherwise you would not fear that I would be able to identify you from the sound of your voice alone." He twisted his hands, but the rope did not give away, not that he had expected it to. But people made mistakes, and sooner rather than later this one would follow the same pattern. "Interesting." He mused out loud. "Despite being trespassing and apparently having a fetish for tying people to their beds, I must say that you take good care of the people you choose as your victims. Those ropes will not be able to cut through skin unless one struggles, and then it will be by their own doing rather than because of your actions."

Hearing soft movements from his left Voldemort barely held his head still. So far, this intruder had given no hint of what their intentions were. Now where they were moving, he might get the information he wanted soon enough.

The bed dipped slightly as the person joined him on it, either they were small or a young person. Had he been anybody else, he would probably have thought the former most likely, but Voldemort knew that age rarely was a matter of importance when you wanted something done.

The person started lowering the duvet that had been pulled up under his chin until now, doing it slowly and letting the tip of their fingers brush over his chest in the process.

In the area between his navel and pubic hair the movement paused and the other's breathing pattern picked up, showing that the other was far from as indifferent as they would have liked to appear. Voldemort allowed a smile to grace his face. This was the loose end he had been looking for, which would allow him to gain the upper hand in this game. "You have come this far, shy hesitate now? Kindly correct me if I am wrong, but do you happen to be a virgin?" He kept his tone plain, as if this was a part of a conversation he had every day. Inwardly he almost pitied the intruder. They would die without knowing the pleasure of flesh.

Their own fault really.

But the small taunt was as effective as he had desired.

The duvet was yanked off in one floating move, revealing his naked body for the whole room to see. In the silence that followed Voldemort waited.

He would let the intruder take the next step, wanting to see what they had planned. It was not like they would be able to keep him here. He might not have access to his magic at the current moment, and he was bound and blindfolded, but Voldemort was sure that there was a connection between those factors, but it would only take a word and he would be free again.

At the moment he didn't believe that they were inclined to kill him. Either they would have done it while he was asleep or right after he had realised his situation. This heightened the likeliness that they were after something, information or a priceless artefact he had in his possession. Both were likely, but he would wait and see what this person wanted.

On the offhand chance that he might be wrong, he knew that he would be faster than his opponent, despite several factors being at his disadvantage.

He waited to see what would happen when the other settled down between his spread legs, not touching any part of his body.

Voldemort kept his gaze focused at the ceiling through the blindfold he was wearing, barely twisting when the fingers started wandering over his body with ghosting touches. "Since I am in a generous mood, I will give you this one warning. If you value your body parts, you will refrain from touching what only my bonded is allowed to lay his eyes on without facing consequences."

The hands paused near his nipples, but did not move away from his skin. By now he was half erect, which did not worry Voldemort, it was only natural for his body to react to sexual intended touches whether or not the owner of it had any positives thought about it. "_I'm happy that you are serious about our relationship. If I found that you had cheated with someone, I would dug through Severus' collection of lethal poisons and used it on them. And then I would have gone somewhere where no one, not even you, would be able to locate me_." The dark promise was said in a causal tone, letting Voldemort know that every word was seriously meant.

Tilting his head Voldemort looked at where he had calculated the other's face to be. "_And what has happened to make this necessary, my little seer_?" He asked, slipping into Parseltongue now where he knew he would be understood no matter which of the two languages he spoke.

It explained why he had not been alerted when someone had entered his quarters. After hearing of Harry's visions he had changed the wards so the youth would be able to seek him out should it prove to be necessary. His bonded was able to come and go as he pleased, though Voldemort's intention behind this was to ensure that Harry would stay for as long as possible.

Silence dominated the room and if not because he could feel Harry's weight dip down the bed between his legs, he would have been inclined to believe that he was alone. "_I'm not small_." Came the snapping reply. Yet, there was something below those words that alerted Voldemort that Harry had something planned. Not that the predicament he was in had not already been a huge hint about this. "_Actually you said that you wanted to be repaid for taking me to see the Bulgarian team yesterday, so I decided to pay of my debt_."

Harry shifted in his seated position between his legs and Voldemort waited. He had, what he assumed was quite a good, idea about what his seer had in mind. Would Harry have the courage to go through with it? The youth was inexperienced and by his calculations it would still be too early for him to take a step like-

Voldemort had his answer when a hand grasped his erection, and a tongue carefully liked the tip of his already half erect penis, almost as if testing if it was safe to do so. His cock twisted in response to the action, which seemed to encourage Harry to go further. A wet heat closed around the tip of his erection like a small child nursing its mother's nipple for milk. Pre-cum started leaking and Voldemort felt how his resolve to stay stoic started to crumble, stone by stone.

His penis swelled under the ministrations of Harry's mouth and tongue. He could almost imagine the glint there was bound to be in Harry's eyes at this point. Voldemort groaned and let his head thump back against the mattress.

The mouth opened further and started slowly to take in more of the length. In an unguarded moment Voldemort was unable to contain himself and bucked his hips, still keeping some ability to move despite the ropes keeping him down.

The sudden move caught Harry by surprise, causing him to splutter and cough as he withdrew to be able to breathe. Voldemort stifled a groan as the warmth left his cock that was now wet and sensitive to the lower temperature in the room. In the future he would have a house-elf attend to the fireplace so that the fire would not go out during the night.

"_Let me try again_." What he lacked in experience Harry made up for with his eagerness. He could easily see the concentrated expression Harry was probably wearing as he once again let his mouth engulf the hardness. It made Voldemort feel the need to use his magic to set the blindfold on fire, so he would be able to see it with his own eyes. He would have it for good for another time.

This time Voldemort made sure to keep his body still as Harry's mouth went further down than it had been before on its own, but not quite as far as he wanted it to. His fingers twisted in the desire of taking hold of the hair and then make him go all the way, but the rope holding him down stopped him from doing so.

The demand to be released was on his lips, he would never sink as low as begging, Harry hummed around his cock, causing him to lose the meagre control he had over his body and Voldemort came.

For the second time Harry withdrew his mouth, coughing and spluttering as he did so, rather similar to when his seer had been taken by surprise not even minutes ago. But there was no sound of spitting and he knew that Harry had gotten most of the load into his mouth. This meant that his bonded had swallowed his semen without a word of protest.

The smugness this knowledge brought him dimmed when he felt a wet cloth against his skin as Harry set at cleaning his groin.

He was the first to regain his breath, though by the sound of it Harry was not far behind him. "_Now, release me_." As soon as he was freed he intended to ravish the seer and show him how one was supposed to bring pleasure to a man.

"_Nope_." Was the only answer he got from the younger male. Voldemort debated with himself what sat most wrong with him. The cheerful way Harry gave his answer or the fact that his order was being denied.

The cloth was laid aside and Voldemort felt rather than heard Harry leave the bed. "_Is there a reason to why you are denying me_?" He attempted to keep his voice calm, and managed the task, if only just.

"_I just gave you a blowjob, and you are already half hard again. If I let you lose now, I don't think I will like the result_." Harry's voice sounded further away from him, indicating that he was serious about leaving him like this.

But his mind was already filled with ideas of what he would do with Harry as soon as he got his hands on him. A greater part of them involved pouncing him as soon as he was free. "_So you intend to leave me here in this state_." It was not a question, but Voldemort was interested to see what Harry would do now.

Hearing a heaved sigh and soft footsteps coming towards the bed and him, Voldemort knew that he had won. It was almost disappointing how soon it was over, but it only meant that he would not have to wait long before he could enjoy his prize.

Instead of getting back onto the bed, Voldemort felt Harry lean over him and place something over his member, by the feel of it, it was the same kind of cloth that had been used to clean his cum away, but this one was at least dry.

"_There_." Harry said, heading for the door. "_That should do it. Now, feel free to call for help, or wait an hour and the magic absorbing ropes will stop working and you will be able to get free on your own. You can think of this as a punishment for all those times you have manhandled me, and for the last time which really hurt_." With that there was the sound of the door opening and then closing, perhaps with more force than was necessary.

Voldemort laid back against the pillows behind him and contemplated.

So his little seer was out for revenge and in a playful mood, who was he to not play along with that?

He could wait that hour, give Harry a small head start and then the hunt would begin.

A cold breeze swept through the room, making him shiver.

Oh, he would enjoy it when he caught his prey.

**)00(**

Running from Voldemort seemed like a good idea, an excellent one in fact.

Then again, so had drugging the man's wine so he could bind Voldemort without him waking, and the way of showing his thanks also done.

It was a reward as well as a punishment, all in one. He hadn't been interested in meeting the Bulgarian Quidditch team. But, if not for this little trip, he would not have been so lucky to stumble over the excellent specimen of the Movens Comedentis plant. Both Severus and Draco had been positively salivating over the plant, though the blond had been more envious about the fact that Harry had gotten to meet Viktor Krum.

Personally Harry would rather have another meeting with Clara Ivano. She was crazy, no doubt about that, but she had that kind of personality that made life interesting. If she didn't get you killed first with her antics or drove others around her mad.

Perhaps he should rather let Pansy have a go on Voldemort. The girl had been ecstatic about the whole date, until she heard what had happened. In her mind, a date meant a romantic dinner, with low music, candlelight and the other party actually being there. It didn't escape Harry's notice that Blaise was standing a little away and scribbling down notes to what Pansy said. The Italian was determined not to get on her bad side when he took her out.

What really surprised Harry, was the Diablo had not used the opportunity to leave, instead insisting that Harry could not possibly last without having him around. The seer had refrained from pointing out that he had survived sixteen years before meeting the snake. If it meant that he did not have to say goodbye to a friend, he would accept it.

And by the looks Diablo had been given Nagini it would seem that Bellatrix would be allowed to test her theory about whether or not snakes of two different kinds could produce offspring.

And that little trip to the Amazon jungle and its aftermath were the reasons to why he was running through Hogwarts' many corridors as if he had the grim on his heels before the sun was even up.

It was not much wrong in Harry's mind. An hour had long since came and passed, and, no matter if he had called for help or waited for the time to run out, it meant that Voldemort was free and surely out for revenge after Harry had abandoned him like that.

Harry held no desire to be near Voldemort until the Dark lord had cooled down and started thinking rationally. Harry doubted very much that the enforced time in bed had helped with that. If anything Voldemort would have used the waiting time to scheme plans which most likely included him in different scenarios.

Thus, the reason why Harry was running around like a mad man, only having taken a brief break to rinse his mouth to get rid of the taste of Voldemort's semen. He still couldn't believe that he had gathered enough courage to do such a thing.

He needed somewhere to hide. He had only just stopped being sore whenever the Pain Reliever wore off and he moved wrongly, and he really didn't fancy having to take the potion again, and having to deal with the knowing looks Severus would give him during this.

The question was, where to hide?

He had already crossed out his room, the Slytherin common room and the dungeon as a whole from the list, as those where too blatant choices.

For a brief moment he had entertained the thought of searching protection by the Whomping Willow, the violent tree was ought to be able to keep Voldemort at bay for a while, at least until he had cooled down a little. But he knew that the tree risked ending as a victim of Voldemort's wrath and being found somewhere public by Voldemort was something Harry wanted to avoid. A nagging feeling in the back of his mind told Harry that it would not lead to anything good.

It also meant that the Great Hall and the library were out as well. A shame, really. If the library had been a possible place, at least he would be able to keep himself occupied until it was safe for him to come forth again.

Of course, any hiding place would be worth nothing if Voldemort was able to activate the charms on the bracelet, but Harry counted on the man being in no state to remember a small detail like that.

Perhaps he should go to the kitchen. He could get something to eat and watch the house-elves as they worked or went to clean some unused part of the castle.

That was it!

Grinning at the brilliant idea that had just hit him, Harry forgot to watch where he was going and speedily walked directly into a wall he swore that had not been there the last time he looked up. With a groan Harry staggered a step back and tenderly touched his nose, which had taken the blunt of the impact. He didn't need to leave a blood trail behind for Voldemort to follow.

Deciding that there was no damage done, at least not any which he could see, Harry shook his head. What was it he had been thinking before the wall had popped out of nowhere?

Oh yes, house-elves. And there was one he knew that would not rat him out and at the same time he would hopefully be a help.

"Dobby!" He did not dare to raise his voice much over a whisper, fearing that Voldemort might be able to hear him, if he happened to speak too loud.

The crack announcing Dobby's arrival nearly had Harry jumping out of his skin in fright. Putting a hand over his fast beating heart, Harry managed to put a smile on his face at the sight of the house-elf. "What cans Dobby be doing for great master Harry Potter, sir?"

Crunching down Harry put a finger to his lips, signalling that Dobby had to be quiet, a task Harry wasn't quite sure that the house-elf would be able to complete. "I need somewhere to hide, without having to leave Hogwarts, where no one else can find me. Do you know a place that fits to that?" Harry didn't dare to get his hopes up, but he couldn't keep running around all day. Sooner or later Voldemort would locate and capture him, probably sooner once people got out of their beds, but Harry wanted to draw it out for as long as possible.

"Dobby be knowing just the place!" The elf exclaimed, stopping tugging at his ears now where he had finished thinking. "Other elfs be calling it come and go room, one really needs it to be there to being using it. There great master Harry Potter be hiding, sir."

Harry couldn't recall ever hearing about such a room before. But house-elves came far around and were ought to find places that people had forgotten about. "How do I find it?" Simply going around and feeling a need for a room didn't sound like it would have a great success rate for him.

Though, from the name alone, and added with Dobby's description Harry knew that it was perfect. If the room wasn't always to be found, and he got into it, then the risk of being found by Voldemort would be comforting small.

"You is going to the seventh floor and walk past the wall opposite the tapestry of the trolls is doing ballet with wizard teaching them three times, think of what is being needed and the door is being come."

The room almost sounded too good to be true. But it was the best opportunity he had. Really, he had already tried to go to the Hospital Wing, not even Voldemort would be brave enough to go there without a good reason. But the three Lestranges there, and their rather pink, scolded looking skin, Harry decided against that idea. If Voldemort against belief should decide to look for him there, Harry knew that Bellatrix would happily rat him out, if nothing else then for the sake of the small entertainment it was ought to bring her. "Thanks Dobby, you've been a great help."

Seeing Dobby's eyes start to water, Harry jumped onto his feet, deciding that it was time for him to get going. He had forgotten that most house-elves were expected to do as they were ordered to and rarely, if ever, got any thanks for their services. A wailing house-elf was the last thing he needed, but that didn't soothe Harry's guilt over leaving Dobby behind like this.

He would find a way to repay Dobby on a later time.

Harry sprinted towards the seventh floor. He used every shortcut he could think of, and to an outsider it might seem like he was just running randomly around, but in the end, it did bring Harry much faster to his destination than if he simply had been taking the stairs as most were inclined to do.

Coming to a halt he leaned forward and supported himself by placing his hands on his slightly bent knees. Merlin, he needed to get into a better shape. Then again, it wasn't every day that he needed to run around like this, and he was rather used to work with cauldrons. Though, he supposed that starting at the third floor and then running through what felt like half the castle was no small feat.

Spotting the portrait with the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy attempting to teach trolls ballet, Harry knew that he was at the right place.

Wandering three times back and forth in front of the bare wall across the tapestry, Harry focussed his thoughts on the matter at hand. He needed somewhere safe to hide where he would be able to wait until it was safe to come out again.

A non-descriptive door appeared, and not a moment too late. Hearing hurried footsteps heading in his direction, Harry knew that he did not have long to act. The person was close, and even though it might not be Voldemort, the person would still be able to tell where he had last been seen.

Casting one last glance over his shoulder, Harry saw the person's shadow from around the corner, growing by each step the other took, spinning Harry into action. Quickly the door was opened and as soon as he was inside, Harry closed the door again, trying to keep the level of noise to a minimum.

He pressed his ear against the door and waited with a bated breath. The footsteps had stopped just on the other side of the door, and Harry realised his mistake. He'd forgotten to lock the door. Should he risk being heard, or count on his luck that the person wasn't planning on using the come and go room?

Before he was able to reach a decision the footsteps started anew, slowly bringing their owner away.

Once he could no longer hear anything from the other side of the wood, Harry reached down and turned the key, effectively locking the door. Unless someone thought of using magic he would be safe for now. Still, he removed the key from its hole and slipped it into one of the pockets in his robe. It made him feel more secure that he was holding the means to leave the room.

Finally he was ready to see what kind of place this come and go room was.

Turning around, a frown dominated his face when Harry started taking in the details. The room had a decent size and there were no windows, so he didn't have to worry about being spotted from the outside by some early flyers. The ceiling and the walls were made of dark wood while a white and soft looking rug covered the floor from wall to wall.

There was a couch and two light brown leather wingchairs to his left, positioned around a small coffee table. And at the wall to his right what looked like a small mountain of pillows took up a part of the floor.

But it was the furniture in the middle of the room that had Harry's jaw dropping.

It looked eerily much like Voldemort's bed, right down to the dark duvet that was laid over the bed, and Harry sure as hell hadn't had something like this in the forefront of his mind when he had wanted the room to appear.

Taking a step back Harry was well aware of what this meant. The room was taking orders from someone else. And Harry didn't want to stick around long enough to have his suspicion confirmed.

"_You took longer than I had calculated to make it here_." The voice came from somewhere among the many shadows in the room. Previously the lowered light had made the room look almost cosy. Now where he knew that Voldemort was in the room with him, Harry would have preferred it to be better lit.

Reaching behind him Harry couldn't feel the handle, in fact it felt like the door had been exchanged with a wall. And seeing that Harry hadn't done anything but turning around he knew that it meant that the only exit was gone. "_What do you mean, that you've been waiting here? I didn't even know that this place existed_." His eyes flicked around like a nervous butterfly, trying to locate Voldemort in the shadows which seemed to grow darker and deeper with each passing second.

"_Until a house-elf you called for told you about the Room of Requirement_." The voice came from somewhere along the wall at the right side of the room. It was not close enough to make him listen to the voice in the back of his head that yelled to him that he had to get moving. "_And the creature belongs to the Malfoy family_." This time the voice was coming from the left side, making Harry wipe his head around in hope of catching a look of the man.

"_And the Malfoys serve you_." Harry said, realising that he had been played into Voldemort's hands, despite it being the exact opposite of what he had attempted to do. It was suspicious that Dobby, who did not even work at Hogwarts, would know about the school's many secrets, he should have thought about that instead of being so desperate that he did not think logically.

"_Exactly, and now where this little game is over, I believe it is time for me to claim my prize_." This time the voice came from directly behind him, making Harry jump forward as he felt fingers brush over his back and made to grip his clothes.

He refused to call the sound he emitted a shriek, but as he ran towards the couch, Harry didn't have time to think of something else to call it. He needed to get out of here, that much was clear. Unfortunately the door was gone, and Harry had the feeling that Voldemort didn't intend to let it return before he found it fitting to do so.

Digging into his pockets, foregoing the now useless key he had, Harry decided to make this game a little more fair for him. Seeing as Voldemort had once again disappeared into the shadows, why should Harry make it so easy for the other by staying in sight?

He couldn't quite keep the grin off his face when his fingers brushed against the slippery cloth that made his cloak, took it out of the pocket and put it on, not giving Voldemort time to come up with a counter move. "_You are wrong if you believe that being invisible will be able to keep you away from me. I fully intend to have you and as long as I am in control of this room, there is no way for you to leave_."

Harry moved to the space between the couch and the bed where there was most room for him to move around on, trying to locate Voldemort. His voice was coming from several directions at once, making it impossible to pinpoint his exact location.

"_I had something special in mind when I entered the Room of Requirement_." Despite knowing that the cloak covered him fully and kept him hidden from view, Harry felt like a too easy target, standing out in the open like this and not knowing where Voldemort was. Yet, he forced himself to move slowly around the bed, careful not to do anything that could reveal where he was, and keep his breathing calm.

"_You see, you left me with a rather big problem when you departed, so I believe that it will only be fair if you assist me in taking care of it. So I intend to take you, several times. On the pillows, on the table, on the couch, over the chairs, and, if you are a good boy, I will end the act with taking you on the bed_." Harry's breathing had picked up, and his head was spinning from listening to Voldemort's small speech. He was quite sure that it wasn't even humanly possible to have sex so many times in a row. And yet, Voldemort left him with no doubt that the man was serious about his intentions.

Swallowing Harry took another step backwards, so he was now between the bed and the pile of pillows. There was less space to move around here, which made it seem like a less likely place for him to hide, which, in turn, made it perfect. He could stay here and wait until Voldemort was forced to do something that would reveal his position.

But while moving, Harry's foot caught the bottom of his cloak, yanking the piece of cloth off him.

Dumbly Harry stared down at the cloak around his feet, not believing that his luck could really be this bad.

Feeling very much like a deer caught in headlight, Harry stood as frozen, his own breathing sounding unnaturally loud in his own ears. "_I can't see why you would be so mad about it, I mean, most people would be happy for getting a wake-up call like that_." Binding Voldemort was a bad idea, really, he knew that now. It was just a shame that it was a lesson learned too late.

A rough chuckle made him shiver in a mixture of pleasure and excitement. Voldemort, it seemed, was in a playful mood, but Harry wasn't so sure if it could be countered as a good thing. "_You are welcome to make it a morning ritual. The only way to be able to give proper pleasure with oral sex is to practice it. No, what bothers me is that you snuck something in my wine that made me sleep while you snuck into my room and tied me up_."

Harry couldn't quite keep a grin off his face as he recalled the event. Nagini had been rather eager to help him slip a Sleeping Draught into Voldemort's wine. He was not sure how the snake had managed to complete the task, but she had been happy to be let loose in the castle when Harry arrived.

But the grin died when Voldemort materialised right in front of him, much too close for Harry's liking. He supposed that he should take it as a small relief that Voldemort at least had the courtesy of dressing before showing up.

When he made to take some steps backwards, Voldemort's arm shot out and encircled him, pulling him flush against Voldemort's body.

This close Harry was too aware of Voldemort's erection digging into his flesh. He got his hands in between them and pushed against Voldemort's shoulders in hope of getting free. If anything, it only seemed to make Voldemort more aroused.

Suddenly he was sailing through the air, as if he weighted nothing, and his eyes went wide in surprise. He landed in the nest of pillows, landing softly though a little unsettled because of his abrupt flight.

Voldemort was over him before Harry could gather himself enough to even think of moving away. With a snap of his fingers both of their clothes were gone, and with that any lingering doubt Harry might have had about whether Voldemort was actually serious about what he had said.

Open mouthed kisses were bestowed on his skin, his chest and neck in particular. Voldemort was sucking hard enough for Harry to know that there would be marks once this was over. Placing his hands on Voldemort's shoulders, Harry didn't know if it was to push Voldemort away or pull him closer, but he went for the later.

A mouth was on his, and Harry easily opened his mouth for Voldemort's tongue, letting his own be coaxed into a battle.

Meanwhile Voldemort was keeping his hands busy, letting them wander over Harry's body, exploring as they hadn't had the chance to do the last time they were together. A whimper escaped him when one of Voldemort's hands found his erection, the fingers closed around the sensitive skin and then they twisted.

"_Bloody Hell_!" Harry broke off the kiss, digging his nails into Voldemort's flesh in response to the painful ministration. "_What was that for_?" He demanded, turning his head to the side when Voldemort tried to kiss him again. It didn't deter the man, and Voldemort instead went to lavish his throat with small bites, some of them with enough pressure behind to break skin.

Half lidded red eyes were watching him, seemingly uncaring about his protests. "_You didn't believe that your little stunt would go unpunished, did you_?" Harry truly didn't like the cruel grin on Voldemort's face, it didn't spell well for him. Something tightened around the root of his penis, making Harry sit half up before a hand planted in the middle of his chest pushed him back against the pillows "_You will be allowed to come, if you beg enough for it_."

Had he had fur, his hackles would have risen at Voldemort's words. As it was, there wasn't much he was able to do, trapped as he was under Voldemort's body. "_Bring it on, bastard_!" The challenge was followed by baring his teeth. If Voldemort had learned nothing of being bound, then Harry would just try and teach him another lesson.

And the next time he would have a hiding place prepared beforehand, so he would not end in this kind of situation. He was sure that the Whomping Willow would be elated at the prospect of having a new play mate it could trash.

His thoughts were forced back on track when his legs were nudged apart, and a sleek finger was circling his hole. Harry was given no warning when it was suddenly pushed past the ring of muscles.

He closed his eyes, knowing that it did nothing to help reduce the pain that assaulted him.

The intrusion hurt, but far from the burning pain Harry had been in when he had been taken the first time. He supposed it was because of the difference in size between Voldemort's finger and the man's member. "_Relax_." Came the hissed command, making Harry crack an eye open, not sure when exactly he had closed them.

"_Easier said than done_." Harry hissed back, clenching his fists in one of the pillows. He knew that it would probably lessen the hurt, but his muscles seemed to be locked, refusing to listen to any commands his brain tried to give them. His body remembered the pain that had been overshadowed by pleasure in the end, but still it was not something he desired to feel again.

Before Harry could contemplate what was going on, Voldemort pulled the finger out and rolled off of him, instead lying next to him on the pile of pillows.

Surprised, and not sure of what he should make of this, Harry waited to see what would happen now.

He let Voldemort take his hand, sitting up at the same time as the appendage was lifted to Voldemort's lips and the fingers taken into his mouth. He couldn't help the shiver that ran down his back as they were coated in saliva, one by one.

When his fingers were let free, Harry didn't bother to hide his grimace at the gross sight. He couldn't see the use of Voldemort sucking on his fingers, though he had to admit that it had been a sensual sight. Perhaps it was some kind of kink that Voldemort harboured?

"_Prepare yourself_."

Puzzled when nothing happened, Harry drew his eyes from his soaked fingers and raised an eyebrow at Voldemort. What exactly was going on in his mind? "_Huh_?" He probably should have used actual words, but Harry felt it was the best sound to show his confusion.

"_Seeing as you are against letting me prepare you, I find that we reach the best result by having you do the preparation yourself_." Voldemort waved his hand lazily, indicating that Harry could get started at any time.

Beating down the blush that wanted to take over his normal face colour, Harry thought over what Voldemort had just said. The idea had merits. This way he would have control over how fast and how far it would go, instead of Voldemort holding the reins.

The problem was that Voldemort made no indication of looking away, there was a reason to why he had blindfolded Voldemort before deciding to go through with the blowjob. It was hard enough to know that he was doing something like that for the first time, he didn't need someone else watching while he did so.

Though, the blindfold had only stopped Voldemort from seeing the actual act, not that it had made much difference since he had also been the receiver, and it had probably only made Voldemort more determined than he otherwise would have been.

Meeting Voldemort's gaze head on, Harry got up in a crouched position. It took a moment to stop wobbling on the unstable ground the pillows made under his bare feet. Gnawing on his lower lip Harry reached backwards, figuring that it would be easier to reach that way around.

He forced himself to relax as he pushed a finger inside, but couldn't quite withhold a gasp. Adding another finger, Harry engaged Voldemort, who had sat up and was watching him with heated eyes, into a kiss to distract himself as he started stretching his fingers.

Breaking the kiss when the pain had lessened enough for it to no longer burn, Harry couldn't help but experiment a little. He crocked the two fingers inside him and stars practically exploded in front of his eyes as he brushed against his prostate.

If it wasn't because Voldemort had used magic on him, Harry was certain that he would have come right then and there.

With a levelled glare at Voldemort Harry removed his fingers, feeling strange at the sudden emptiness. "_This is enough_." Truly, he wasn't sure whether he was right or not. But the longer he dragged this out, the longer it would take before he would be allowed to come. While it felt good to torment Voldemort, some of the fun was lost if it included him as well.

"_Lay down_." A hand on his chest pushed Harry backwards, so he was on his back.

Again Voldemort was over him, placing an extra pillow under his hips before pushing his legs apart. Harry stared into the other's eyes, fascinated by what he saw in there. Lust, warmth, and a third thing which Harry wasn't sure how he was supposed to identify it.

His legs wrapped themselves around Voldemort's waist, as if having a mind entirely on their own. But judging by the lack of protests from Voldemort, Harry would say that he was doing something right.

He reached out to touch Voldemort, only to find his fingers entangled with Voldemort's as his arms were lead back to his sides where he would be unable to do more damage to Voldemort than he'd already done by digging nails through the skin on his shoulders.

Though knowing what was to come, Harry couldn't help the hisses of pain that escaped his clenched lips as Voldemort drove in with one move. The wordless sounds were drowned when Harry managed to sit up and press his lips against Voldemort's in a kiss which drew blood from both of them as they both refused to bow down to the other.

Unlike last time, Voldemort moved slowly, angling each thrust different. The hands let go of his. One went for his hair, tangling itself in the black locks and kept Harry's head still as Voldemort deepened the kiss, which Harry only too willingly allowed.

The other hand went for his nipples, shifting between the two buds which he caressed and twisted.

Now where his hands were free, they went to Voldemort's back. Trailing over Voldemort's skin and leaving marks on their own on the man's back.

A thrust hitting his prostate made Harry arch his back and he gasped, though the sound was swallowed by Voldemort.

Harry turned his head away, gulping down mouthfuls of air. "_Again_!" He didn't know if he was demanding, pleading or whatever the Hell someone would call it. As long as he got to feel this kind of pleasure again, it really didn't matter.

But it hurt not being allowed to come. Harry felt like he was too close to be pushed over the edge, and yet magic kept interfering each time he was sure that now was the time where he would be allowed to finally come.

Voldemort started bantering his prostate with each thrust, keeping up the tempo as Harry pushed back into his thrusts. Soon Harry was turned into a blubbering mess under his lover, whimpering and moaning without making any coherent sounds.

He was so close that he felt that he was about to burst. His balls were drawing up and tightening.

It didn't help that one of Voldemort's hands had found his cock, and his ministrations were turning the heat in his stomach into an inferno. And yet, the magic stopped Harry from coming, keeping him just on the edge.

It was like balancing on the edge of a knife. On one side there was sweet relief, on the other hand, a fall straight to insanity. And Harry was sure that that was the way he would soon go if he was not allowed to come. "_Just let me come already_!" He got out through gritted teeth, not sure whether it was tears or drops of sweat that were running down his face at this point.

"_Reduced to begging already? What a shame, I had expected you to last longer_." Came from above him, the taunting in Voldemort's voice painfully clear.

It took him a moment to gather himself to think, not to say speak, coherently, as Voldemort choose that moment to pick up pace, indicating that he too felt close to coming. "_I'm not begging, rather-Argh_!"

Whether or not Voldemort believed his words, Harry didn't know, but the magic was lifted and he lasted three more thrusts before he wailed when his orgasm exploded out of him. Voldemort followed closely after him, a reaction to the tightening of the muscles around his cock and hot seed spilled inside him.

Voldemort collapsed on top of him, making Harry sink into the pillows to the point where he started believing that he might be crushed.

With Voldemort still inside him, Harry tried to wiggle free, but the soft ground and Voldemort's weight made that next to impossible. Plus, at this point Harry wasn't sure that he would be able to get far even if he managed to get free.

Both were breathing heavily, each trying to regain their breath as the first. As Voldemort's face was pressed against Harry's joint between left shoulder and neck, each warm huff of breath washed over Harry's too sensitive skin.

Shifting in hope of finding a more comfortable position, Harry winced as he felt Voldemort's cock twist inside him. "_You're crushing me, move_." Keeping his eyes on the ceiling, Harry bit back a wince as Voldemort lifted himself up and started pulling out of him. Apparently his attempt to stretch himself hadn't been good enough, and he was starting to feel the consequences of this, if the small bursts of soreness that appeared every time his lower body as much as twisted was anything to go by.

"_Are you ready for round two_?" Widening his eyes, Harry hoped that Voldemort was kidding. But one glance at the face of the now sitting man, told Harry that he was indeed serious.

Ignoring the protests his body was screaming at him, Harry pushed himself up into a seated position, his arms shaking under him, coming face to face with Voldemort. "_Bring it on, bastard_." No matter how much he might end up regretting this decision later on, Harry didn't intend to let Voldemort get one over him.

By the look on Voldemort's face, that had been the answer he had wanted to hear.

**)00(**

"You look like death warmed over, mio amico."Just as he felt like his legs would give out under him, a hand grabbed his arms and he was lead over to one of the green couches. Harry let himself be lowered down on the furniture, scowling as the movements jarred his sore body.

Merlin, he would get Voldemort back for this. Not only was he sore, but some of those marks from their activities in the Room of Requirement were left where his robes could not cover them. At least he knew that the scratches he had left would be felt until they were healed. It was just a shame that they were on his back where no one else would be able to see them.

On the other hand, he wouldn't be happy if someone saw those scratches for something else than medical reasons.

A nudge in his ribs with a pointed elbow reminded Harry that he was not alone. "You look like hell, Scarhead, who have you been in a fight with?"

Harry ducked his head, using his unbound hair to hide the blush that had decided to cover his face. When exactly his braid had become loosened, he wasn't sure about, perhaps somewhere between their second and third round?

Fingers snapping less than an inch from his face nearly had Harry jumping straight up from the couch. "Jeez, Harry, what's gotten into you. You are as jumpy as a Kneazel in a glass shop." Draco commented from his seat next to Harry, not entirely succeeding in concealing the worried glances he kept giving Harry.

"Sorry, I was distracted for a moment, did you say something?" Hopefully, they didn't intend to learn about what had caused him to look like this. He should have changed his clothes before coming here.

Perhaps a bath would have been a good idea too. Harry felt as if Voldemort's scent hang all over him.

By the looks his two friends sent him, Harry knew that he wasn't getting out of it this easy.

Slumping back in the couch Harry did not bother to complain when Draco summoned a brush and started to make Harry's hair look less like an overgrown bird's nest. However, he couldn't quite contain the flinches when Draco brushed over a particular sore spot, something which did not escape the two Slytherins' attention. "So, if you did not get into a fight, something else happened. Perhaps it is linked to why the Dark lord has been missing for most of the day." Since it was true, he shouldn't have to say anything, but with both Blaise and Draco staring expectedly at him, he knew that they were waiting for an answer.

"They are connected. And Voldemort will probably show up when he awakes." It was his own fault, really. Voldemort had taken a Pepper-Up while waiting for him to arrive to keep up his stamina, which Harry had only found out when he had been offered a small vial with the same kind of potion, being at the brink of falling asleep after having been brought to completion for the third time in a row.

Voldemort had still been asleep when Harry had awoken and left, not before leaving a Pain Reliever for Voldemort. No doubt that the man would need it after having taken the Pepper-Up without his body having a need for it.

It was simply done so Voldemort wouldn't feel like torturing the first unfortunate soul he happened to stumbled upon.

By the way Blaise was wiggling his eyebrows at him, Harry knew that the Italian was well aware of what had happened. "First love!" He exclaimed, placing a hand over his heart while blinking rapidly, as if he had gotten something in the eye. "I remember my first time. She was such a sweet girl, not shy and a wildcat when we're alone. Trust me, it's always the bookish ones which are- Ow, what did you do that for?" Blaise was rubbing his head, twisting around so he could send his attacker a withering glare.

Theo seemed completely unaffected by the imaginary daggers Blaise was throwing at him with the eyes alone, holding the book he had hit the Italian with between his hands, looking like he was tempted to repeat the action. "Not all of us are interested in hearing about your excursions. But I do believe that Pansy will not be happy to learn that you didn't have the courtesy to wait for her." Under his tan Blaise suddenly seemed rather pale at Theodore's not so underhanded threat.

"You wouldn't." Despite his own words, Blaise looked unsure about whether Theo actually would rat him out to his fiancé.

Meanwhile Theo kept his face blank of any emotion that might have given a hint about what was going on inside his head. "I might just get temporary amnesia, if you manage to get an E in the latest Arithmancy assignment, which will only happen if you remembered to put seven in where I told Draco." By the way Blaise seemed to slump in on himself and groaned, it was clear that he hadn't done that.

"I'm so doomed. But, I will get my revenge by removing you from my will, Theodore Nott." Blaise pointed a finger at the unimpressed looking Theo. "First I'll have the goblins make me one where you stand to inherit everything I own and have. Then I will burn it so you will get nothing."

Harry blinked, not sure why Blaise would go through the trouble of making a will if he planned on destroying it anyway.

"You do know that it is impossible to burn a goblin made will. Considering that Gringotts are rumoured to have dragons to guard the bank, it was decided a necessary measurement the goblins had to make if they wanted to continue storing wizard documents." The Nott heir lectured with an air around him that made it clear that it was something he expected that everyone should be aware of.

"Damn it!" Harry rolled his eyes, trying to fight off the urge to laugh at Blaise's defeated tone.

Life was good.

**)00(**

"Harrykins!" The yell came from behind, alerting Harry that he was no longer alone, not that the door being slammed open had not already told him that much.

Quickly he stepped out of the line of fire, and watched as Bellatrix barrelled right into the stack of cauldrons he had just finished cleaning.

Fascinated, he watched as they started tilting backwards, regained their normal stance before starting falling towards the two of them. He knew that this would hurt as cauldrons started falling, but with only a small amount of the pile not falling and with the speed the cauldrons were moving towards the ground with, he knew he would not be able to move out of the way in time.

"Accio Harry Potter." The gruff words sent Harry flying through the air and away from the falling projectiles. As the cauldrons hit the ground, Harry closed his eyes and quickly covered his ears with his hands, he didn't need to witness this.

He collided with someone's chest, and despite the impact the person did not move other than using their hands to stabilise him.

Harry gritted his teeth hearing the cauldrons hitting the ground as his hands weren't as good to keep the sound out as Harry had hoped they would be.

After the resounding had died out, Harry dared to open his eyes and let his hands fall.

As he had expected this morning's work was wasted. The cauldrons he had used hours on cleaning were spread over the floor, mixed with those he had yet to work on, and a great deal of them were now spotting bumps.

In the middle of a puddle of dirty soap water stood Bellatrix, looking a little blank but otherwise okay. "The icky vile water is ruining my shoes!" She lifted up her dress, making Harry avert his gaze. He held no interest in the female gender, but he wanted to avoid any misunderstandings by being caught looking a little too long at the older witch.

Shaking his head at the mentally unstable witch Harry stepped free of Rabastan, who was the one who had summoned him. If he wanted to be finished today he would have to start over right away. It was a shame, really. He had been over halfway done, and now he would have to do it all over again, and find a way to fix the bumps. Severus would be murderous if he saw the damage that had been done.

Kneeling down Harry started gathering the smaller cauldrons, trying to ignore the three Lestranges who had caused this whole mess. Well, only Bellatrix was actually guilty, but both of the two males were supposed to be able to keep her under the resemblance of control.

Someone dropped down next to him, quickly followed by two others. Harry turned his head enough to see that all three Lestranges had decided to follow his example. As if sensing the weight of his gaze Rabastan raised an eyebrow, not even looking at him. "You can hardly expect us to simply look on when it was basically our fault that this happened in the first place. Besides, who knows what other trouble Bellatrix might create if she is left unoccupied for too long."

Harry had to agree with the man, though he found it hard to keep a serious expression when he saw the purple rabbit ears Rabastan suddenly spotted. The sound of Bellatrix's crackling soon alerted the man that something was going on, and when he lifted a hand and touched his new appendages, even Harry found it hard to keep his laughter down at the sight of the wizard's face.

They finished much sooner than he would have been able to, if he had been on his own. His mood got even better when the worst of the damage proved to be repairable with a flick of a wand.

Severus would not be able to see the difference, especially now where the cauldrons were standing with those the students were allowed to use. They had been waning in quality, so it wouldn't have taken long before Severus would have them discarded anyway. This way they would at least be useful until a student blew their cauldron up or melted it with their so-called attempt in making a potion.

It was a win-win situation in Harry's opinion.

He would have been skipping if not because he had three ducklings trailing after him. Despite having grown used to their presences those past months, there was something about this whole thing which left him at an edge.

Normally Bellatrix would be here and there, acting like a Niffler on sugar and scaring the wits out of the people they met. Now she was walking close by his side, a position she had claimed after Harry apparently had disappeared for them around a corner one too many times.

It was not hard for Harry to figure out why the trio was acting so stiff and ready to fire curses at the sign of something abnormal. Voldemort had probably ordered the trio to keep a better eye on him, and whatever had been used for motivation, it surely worked.

He should probably get all fussy and grateful that Voldemort went through such trouble to ensure his safety, but all Harry was able to feel was annoyance. Other than when he had snuck through the castle's corridors last week, there hadn't been a moment where he was alone. Whether it was Voldemort, Severus, his friends or even the two reptiles, there was always someone nearby to keep an eye on him.

Nagini had joined Diablo in guarding his room at night time, ensuring that Harry wouldn't leave it before someone else was there to protect him. The female snake judged it to be safer for her own health to stay away from Voldemort until he forgot what role his own familiar had played in drugging him.

The lack of privacy was slowly driving him mad, and if something did not happen soon, Harry would be forced to resort to drastic measures.

Seeing a person walking in the distance with their nose buried in a book Harry took off, ignoring the yells from behind him about stopping.

As he quickly approached the silent Slytherin, Theo looked over his shoulder, knowing better than to disregard any commotion, especially when it was moving his way.

Harry skidded to a stop when he reached Theo, making sure to keep some distance if Theo should decide to use his book on him in the same manner as he did to Blaise. "Greetings Harry, how are you today?" Theo's tone was casual, with an underlying warm tone to it, if anything it made the smile on Harry's face grow a little.

"All good, so where are you going?" Harry fully ignored his three guard dogs who had caught up with them, focussing fully on Theo, who tucked the book he'd been reading into his bag and presumed his course.

Harry lengthened his steps to match Theo's, the usually quiet Slytherin walked rather fast now where a text was no longer claiming most of his attention. "I am heading for the Owlery, but you are all welcome to accompany me." Harry felt his smile grow a notch at Theo's permission.

The stench that wrapped around them as they stepped inside the Owlery made Harry feel the imperative urge to heave. He knew that there were potions which smelled much worse than this, but they had a purpose and that reason alone made it easier for Harry to deal with them rather than this smell.

Owls of all kinds, most which he'd seen in the Great Hall at least once, were in the Owlery. Some were resting, probably collecting energy after a long flight, a few paid the newcomers any mind, only to turn their attention elsewhere shortly after. The rest disregarded them without as much as a single glance in their direction.

Theo walked into the middle of the round room, raising an arm so it was on level with his eyes. Harry watched with interest from his spot near the door in case that he would need a quick exit. The Owlery was not a place which he had been more than once or twice in the past. And with its dark atmosphere and rotting corpses of pests on the floor, it wasn't all the homey.

He didn't get to wait for long. From one of the perches just under the roof a big, white bundle of feathers hurled itself off. The animal dived towards the floor, folding out wings of an impressive size and changed course before it could crush into the floor.

Harry couldn't take his eyes off the white Snowy owl as it landed on Theo's arm, which only sank a bit at the added weight. The owl hooted, tenderly fixing Theo's hair into the way it was supposed to be in the owl's mind.

"So pretty." Sharp amber coloured eyes, almost too intelligent to belong to an animal, pinned him down as soon as the words had left his mouth. At this moment Harry felt like a prey that had been spotted and knew it was only waiting for the inevitable death.

The glare lessened a degree or two when Theo scratched the owl under its beak. "Hedwig, this is Harry, who is my friend. Harry, Hedwig is one of the owls my father has bred. She is intelligent and is able to track anyone down."

This was said with no little amount of pride, but that was not the first thing on Harry's mind when he opened his mouth to speak. "She? But I thought that the females had brown feathers, how come she is coloured like one of the males of her kind?" Harry ducked the wing that had been heading for his head, but the way Hedwig was clicking her beak at him, this was not over yet.

But an owl that was able to track anyone down anywhere, now that was news which he could see the use of.

Theo petted the black spotted feathers, calming the owl enough so she would not launch into an attack on the seer. "Hedwig is a special case. My father wanted to see if he could make females with the same impressing colours as the males have. While he's succeeded in doing so, all the females have been infertile, so he cannot get to the next part of the experiment, to see if their female offspring would also have other colours."

Harry nodded, not quite sure how he was supposed to respond to this. He failed to see why the looks would be so important. If he had an owl, he would rather prefer an intelligent companion than someone who looked pretty.

"She's so cool." As if she understood his words, Hedwig puffed up her chest and sent him a look that convinced him that he might be one step closer to be forgiven for mistaking her gender.

It didn't mean that she would not remember the fault, and Harry would rather keep his distance until that happened.

**)00(**

"It tastes like goblin piss." As he said that, Harry felt the changes settle in. His limbs started stretching to the point where he was sure he heard his bones cracking in protest. Knowing that they couldn't afford being found right now, he clenched his teeth, waiting as it felt like his body was being twisted and turned in all directions at once.

Teeth clamped down on his lower lip, slightly smaller than his own normally was. Sucking in a deep breath Harry looked around slowly, trying to get over the fact that everything looked so strange.

He couldn't help but blink when he saw himself not far from where he was standing. The other Harry was leant up against a wall in the niche they had decided to hide in, It was strange to see himself like this. Whenever he was included in a vision, he always saw things from his future self's point of view. Like this he had to admit that he was vertically challenged.

The other's eyes ran over him, taking in the sight of Harry's changed body, as Harry had done not even a minute ago. "Strange, yours tasted like honey." Draco, or should he call him Harry, now where the former blond was wearing his skin, sounded almost disappointed by the fact.

Harry shrugged, wincing when Draco slapped him on the shoulder. "It's unbecoming of a Malfoy to do something so menace as shrugging in the public, and don't even think about rolling your eyes at someone. If even one person notices any strange behaviour, the whole plan will go down the drain."

Breathing in sharply, Harry pushed his shoulders slightly back and lifted his chin just enough so he could better look at Draco down his nose. "A Malfoy is perfect no matter what they do." It felt strange to hear Draco's usual drawl pass over his lips.

On the other hand, right now Harry supposed that he was Draco, seeing as the Polyjuice Potion made him look exactly like his friend. It also helped that they each had brought some spare clothes for the other to wear before they had drowned the potions. Really, being caught in his own clothes while changing into a Draco replica was not something Harry wished for. The difference in their body builds might not be that big, but it was enough for it to be more than simply noticeable.

Draco nodded. "Better, but it might be for the best if we both speak as little as possible, less the risk of someone deciding that we do not sound entirely like ourselves." At this Harry could only nod, seeing the sense in what Draco had said.

"Remember the potion will only last an hour maximum, so we need to make this quick." Harry was already on his way out of the niche as he spoke, knowing that Draco would be following him. Since they would be heading to the same place, it made little sense if they didn't go together. "But thanks."

Nothing more was being said, and there was no need for it. Harry knew that Draco understood what he meant. It was after all his blond now turned brunet friend who had come up with this plan.

He felt a little bad for stealing the finished potions from Severus' storage, and he knew that it would not go unnoticed for long, but this was something he needed. Not having a lone moment for himself was slowly driving him mad.

But Draco had come up with a solution which could and would work for him.

Using a Polyjuice Potion would give him a small break from his guards. And with Draco parading around as him, it would not start a major search party because Harry could not possible be at two places without the aid of a Time-Turner which he knew no one in their right mind would hand him.

Or if Draco was willing to play him for a short while.

It took some effort, but by the time they reached the gates, and the students ready for leaving the school, Harry felt that he had this new body under control, and it seemed to be the same in Draco's case.

True, Draco was walking more stiffly than Harry normally would bother with, but he counted on that no one would notice the difference. Or perhaps they would just write it off as another one of his encounters with Voldemort.

"Remember, don't use your wand. It's punishable for squibs to take a wizard's wand, and I don't think that they will look through fingers with it if someone sees it." Harry warned before they parted, though it was not necessary. It was unlikely that Draco would make such a mistake, but Harry would rather not take any chances with it.

"Draco, where have you been?" Harry was unprepared when an arm was draped around his shoulders, pulling him out of balance. Astoria was hanging on his arm, and for a moment Harry wanted to shake his arm. But he feared that he might lose it instead of making the witch let go of him.

And really, he didn't think that Draco would forgive him for upsetting his finance. The blond actually seemed to care about the other pureblood, though Harry was still dubious about her. She certainly hadn't warmed up around him, and Harry only tolerated her for his friend's sake.

"A-Astoria, how nice to see you. I didn't think you would come to Hogsmeade." It didn't seem like she noticed his stutter, or perhaps it was so because she was so busy blinking slowly at him with her long eyelashes that she didn't seem to notice it.

The girl giggled, changing her grip on his arm as they started walking together with other students towards the small magical town which didn't lie far from Hogwarts. "Silly Drakipoo, have you forgotten that you promised to take me to Madame Puddfoot's at the next Hogsmeade visit? Are the preparations for N.E.W.T.s exams really so hard that you didn't remember?"

Suddenly Draco's offer about letting them switch bodies seemed far from as godsend as Harry first had thought it would be. Did the blond think that doing this would get him out of the torture that he had set him up to?

But looking at Draco, who was being stoic as he walked with the Lestrange trio guarding him, Harry knew that he wouldn't pay the blond back for this.

Instead he allowed a gentle smile onto his face, by the look Astoria send him that had been the right decision to make. "Of course not, how could I ever forget something that is related to you? You are on the forefront of my mind at any given time. I was just thinking if perhaps we should go around a little before we go there, just enjoying each other's presence before we have to seek inside."

Astoria just smiled and rested her head on his shoulder, her hands closing around his wrist. Luckily ,it was not the one he had the bracelet around. If Astoria noticed the jewellery, Harry would have one Hell of a time trying to explain this to the witch.

"Draco, you are so romantic. I'm happy that it's you I'm with." Harry just smiled, not trusting himself to be able to open his mouth right now and not hurl at the sickly sweet tone of voice she was using when speaking to him.

Walking with Astoria was not as bad as Harry first had expected it to be. Sure, the girl was chatting into his ear as if there was no tomorrow, but Harry found that as long as he made sure to make a sound once in a while, she seemed to believe that he was listening with apt attention.

The first shop they went into was Zonko's. Harry knew that this was not a shop that Draco would probably want to be visiting, but it looked interesting, and with so many students mingling around it would be easy to lose Astoria for a short while.

Where Draco had gone Harry wasn't sure about, but it seemed like Blaise had disappeared with him. Or maybe the Italian intended to find a gift for Pansy, who had to stay back at the castle because she had an essay for Monday which she needed to get done.

Zonko's was packed with students from third year and upwards. Harry found himself pushing his way around the shop, taking in the sight of the many items on the shelves. He didn't intend to buy anything, but it did not mean that he could not watch.

It didn't take long before he spotted Theo. Harry made his way over to the Slytherin, having to push through a small group of Hufflepuffs to get to the corner where his friend was hiding in.

None of them said a word as Harry slumped against the wall, letting his shoulder brush against Theo's to alert the other of his presence. "So, you did go through with the plan."

Harry's jaw dropped at Theo's casual sounding words. The other wasn't even looking at him, simply keeping his eyes on some spot at the other end of the shop. "How did you figure it out?" Harry was sure that they had been so secretive. He hadn't spoken a word about it to anyone, and there really had been no reason for Draco to do so.

"It's quite simple." When Theo made no sign of continuing, Harry gave him a small push with his shoulder. By the look on Theo's face it was the reaction he had been waiting for. "Draco talks in his sleep." With a groan Harry let his head thump back against the wall. After all the trouble they had went through to keep this a secret, they had been found out because of something as simple as Draco sleep talking.

"Are you going to rat me out?" He didn't think that Theo would do that, but he was a rule follower, so Harry couldn't quite say for sure.

Any answer Theo might have had was drowned out by an explosion that made Harry lose his footing and send him flying through the air until he slammed into a shelf.

He fell to the floor and covered his head with his arms when pieces of sweets and toys rained down on him.

Muscles tense in case that he would need to get up quickly, Harry cracked an eye open. He needed to know what was going on before he would be able to decide what he would do.

Dust and smoke were filling the air, making it impossible to see much. And for a moment Harry was absolutely sure that he had gone deaf. There was no sound, not even his own panicked breathing reached his ears. But there had to be sounds. It wouldn't be so quiet unless everyone had died or disappeared, which Harry was sure had not happened.

And then the sounds returned, along with a ringing noise that nearly made Harry wish that he really had gone deaf.

Screams where sounding from outside the street. Whatever had caused the explosion was continuing to cause havoc outside.

Inside he could hear groans of pain and crying. Harry used his sleeve to wipe dirt out of his eyes so he was able to see.

Coughing, Harry blinked several times, his sight getting more focussed though there was a ringing in his ears that didn't seem to be going away.

Coughing Harry tried to push himself up, only to have his legs giving away under him and he thumbed back onto the floor as the whole world seemed to tilt dangerously for him.

Okay, maybe he had sustained some damage from his small flight. It certainly explained the feeling of warm liquid that was running down his face. "Theo?"

No answer came, at least none of which he could hear. It didn't stop Harry. In fact it made his heart start beating harder as he got up on his hands and knees and started searching the floor.

Theo had been standing right next to him. He couldn't have gotten that far. And Harry probably couldn't hear him because of the ringing in his ears. That was all. There was nothing to worry about. He would find Theo, then Astoria, find the rest of his friends whom he knew would be somewhere, and then get the Hell out of here.

Everyone was going to be okay.

**I'm working on next chapter and I have written one line, well more like half of one line, so please don't kill me because of ending the chapter here. Believe me when I tell you, that I could have chosen a much worse spot to do this.**

**Araceil is a writer whose work is worth reading. **

**Next: You get to learn what happened the first time Harry met Slughorn. **


	24. Chapter 24

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

Warning: Character death

**Beta: angelhitomie**

Three seconds.

So little time was needed for the whole world to make such a turnabout face. One minute he had been chatting peacefully with Theo, and the next thing he knew was chaos and he was searching desperately for his bookish friend.

The dust had settled down somewhat, which Harry was thankful for, it was one less thing to hinder his breathing. But meanwhile the smoke had grown thick, black and heavy, making it impossible to breathe somewhat normally unless he kept his head close to the ground, which suited Harry just fine. Right now, he wasn't sure if he would be able to stand unless he had something to support him.

But even when he nearly had his chin scrapping over the floorboards, it was impossible to see more than an arm length forward.

And the chiming in his ears was no help at all, the sounds around him seemed to come back at full strength, only to disappear again. There was no pattern and the whole thing just disorientated him more than he already was.

With two of his senses mostly out of game, Harry was making a slow progress in moving around.

It didn't help that the shelves seemed to have been unable to stand through the blast, having fallen to the floor. Seriously was magic not supposed to ensure that those things stayed in place, and thus not force Harry to crawl around or over them? Each time he had to move upwards, Harry held his breath, not wanting to breathe in more smoke than he already had gotten into his lungs.

Harry knew that he was supposed to get the hell out of there and back to Hogwarts. Whatever had caused the explosion had probably not left this shop alone. And because of his lack of magic, he would be a burden if he hung around.

Besides, all this smoke had to originate from somewhere, and it might be a part of his panicked mind but the room seemed to grow gradually warmer. It was happening slowly, but the change was big enough to be noticeable.

No matter how safe he would be, he would not forgive himself for simply leaving Theodore behind. Having been standing right next to him when the explosion happened, Theo had to be somewhere nearby.

Astoria, he also had to find her. It was primary his fault that she had been involved in this mess. If not because she had insisted on being with her fiancé, him, eh whatever he was supposed to call it. She would have gone straight to Madam Puddifoot's teashop if Harry hadn't tried to put it off until he and Draco would be able to swap places.

And he didn't think that Draco would forgive him if he happened to forget the blond's fiancé to save Theo and himself.

No matter how much he didn't like the witch, it didn't mean that he intended to leave her behind if he had other opportunities.

Speaking of blond annoyances, Harry hoped that Draco was safe. Seeing as Draco was parading around as him the Lestranges had probably already whisked him away to safety, something Draco would not be happy about. He was a Malfoy and would not allow himself to be hidden away like a fair maiden while his friends were in danger.

Once the trio knew that he was still here, assistance would come quickly, he would just have to keep them alive until then. A feat Harry was not sure about how he should manage.

If this was an attack, rather than a magical accident as he was hoping for, this was bad. It was near to impossible to judge what was going on out on the street with the ringing in his ears, drowning out most of the sounds around him.

It felt like a troll had been allowed to go into rampage inside his skull. It did not help that blood was still running down the side of his face. Head wounds tended to bleed much, so for now, Harry decided to put it on the list of things that were less important to worry about.

Unfortunately, the wound was not the only reason for his headache. But Harry had no intentions about letting a vision come now, not when he had no idea of what was going on, only that it was too dangerous to stay here right now.

Unable to see far Harry depended heavily on his hands to ensure that he was not crawling headfirst into danger; with his kind of luck it wouldn't surprise him if he found the source of the heat without noticing it before he was right in the middle of it.

Placing his hand down a little further than he was able to see clearly, Harry grimaced when his palm was planted in a puddle of something sticky. His mind tried to come up with a likely explanation to what the substance was that would not cause his stomach to lose its contents.

Pulling his hand back Harry, despite the voice of reason in his head yelling at him not to, decided to see just what it was that stuck to his skin.

Blood.

Harry would have thought that hysteria would take over at this point, make him panic at the realisation of what it was that clung to him like a second layer of skin.

Instead he felt a strange touch of relief, no matter how unrealistic it seemed in this kind of situation.

He wasn't alone. A small part of him had worried that he was the only one left in the shop, either that everyone else was dead, or perhaps had managed to leave. While the latter was preferable, it didn't mean that he liked the thought of being abandoned in the middle of this chaos.

With how packed Zonko's had been, it was a wonder that he had not found someone until now.

Knowing that the blood had to come from somewhere nearby, Harry followed it, crawling on all fours, while trying not to take notice of the liquid soaking through his pants. The person was wounded, from the amount of the blood he would say gravely, and obviously needed help. Harry might not be an expert in the medical field, but he intended to do the best of his abilities.

When Harry was finally close enough to see the wounded person more clearly, he knew that he had found Theo.

How Theo had been flung this far, Harry couldn't phantom. The Slytherin had been standing right next to him, such a small detail shouldn't make a big difference. But there was no doubt that Theo's spot had been just as painful as his own had been.

But unlike him, Theo had not been so lucky to get away with minor harm.

The lower half of Theo's body was pinned down by the heavy rack, which had fallen and landed on top of the Slytherin as he laid on his stomach, arms reaching out as if he was about to pull himself out of danger's reach while his head was turned to the side.

But the shelf wasn't the reason to why Theo's eyes were staring unseeingly at some point Harry couldn't bother to figure out what it was.

Somehow, perhaps pushed by the shelf, Theo had landed on a figure of Merlin, the medium sized bronze statue having penetrated the wizard's neck, and only the top of it peeking through the wound that went straight through Theo's neck, soaked in blood and the reason to the added mess on the floor.

He couldn't breathe. His throat was constricting and this time it was not because he had stuck his head too far up in the smoke while forgetting to hold his breath.

A dry sob wracked through his body, and quickly Harry placed a hand over his mouth. He didn't want to catch the attention of the one who was behind this, though he doubted that he would be heard.

Theo was dead.

And Harry felt nothing.

He would never get to hear him rattle off some obscure fact like it was something everyone was ought to know.

And who would hit Draco and Blaise with those heavy books that only Theo carried around, before they got too deep into their arguments?

Theo was death, and Harry felt like it was something that had happened in another world, to someone else, that was the only explanation to why he couldn't gather himself enough to be able to feel something remotely strong.

His eyes were glued to the small statue, the part that was peeking up through the wound anyway. What was such a thing even doing in Zonko's? Harry wanted nothing more than to yank it out of Theo's body and turn it into dust with his bare hands. If not for that thing, Theo would still have been wounded, but also alive.

He pressed two fingers against the side of Theo's neck, searching for a pulse despite the signs stating that he would find none. Forcing back another dry sob, Harry closed Theo's eyes, ignoring how his dirty hand was shaking the whole time.

With no way of moving the rack he wouldn't be able to take the body with him out of here. And even with someone to help him, Harry doubted that they would get far by dragging a corpse along.

He skilfully avoided thinking about how many more might have met a fate similar to Theo's, lying crushed under something heavy, or penetrated by sharp objects.

How many were still alive, and how many had he crawled past and over, unaware because of his wavering senses?

Nope, he was definitely not thinking about that.

"Draco!" Half expecting to spot his blond friend, Harry's head snapped up with a speed that made him cringe in pain. Fast movements with his head were a bad idea. Not only did it make the headache flare up with renewed strength, but for a moment the whole world, or at least the part of it visible to him, tilted dangerously.

Trying to keep his head still as he realised that the Polyjuice was still working, Harry knew it meant that Astoria thought that he was her fiancé. At least he wouldn't have to escort her to Madam Puddifoot's, which was probably the last thing on her mind right now.

Like him the witch had gotten down on all fours, abandoning all dignity in favour of survival. This close he could see the tear tracks in the dirt on her face, and what part of her skin was still visible was unnatural pale.

Harry wanted to cry too, to do something that would make that heavy stone in his chest disappear. There would be time to mourn later, once they had gotten out of here and somewhere safe.

Until then he would wait.

A part of thick smoke had gained a orange tinge, and it was much bigger than flames from a fireplace should be able to be, though Harry was sure that the shop didn't have a fireplace.

It ended his hope that the smoke was just the product of a pranking device that had been set off by the tumult.

Watching her gaze land on Theo's still form and how horror filled her expression when Astoria realised just what and who it was she was looking at, Harry quickly moved so he was in between them, mutely scolding himself for not doing this sooner.

She wasn't a Death Eater and was raised with the exceptions of marrying well and produce many pureblood children. This was most likely the first time she saw death in a way that did not include what was on her dinner plate or as a part of her Potions class.

They were so close that Harry was able to see most details about her. Like himself, Astoria hadn't gotten unscratched from the explosion. A fist sized bruise was already blooming on the left side of her jaw, and she was bleeding sluggishly from a gash across the bridge of her nose. Her robes were torn in various places, and half of her hair hung limp while the rest was sticking in various directions.

Both made a pitiful picture, but they were alive. Depending on how long they stayed here, that might change.

"...Out...here!" This wasn't good, despite seeing her lips forming the words, he only heard enough to just catch the meaning of what was said. His headache, which had somewhat dulled upon finding Theo's body, returned with a vengeance.

Though having been the one to say it, Astoria seemed frozen in place, flinching when Harry touched her with a finger. Even now where he was blocking the sight of Theo, she looked about to get sick.

Pushing aside his own urge to retch at the knowledge of who was behind him, Harry tried to convince himself that it was no different from when he saw dead people in his visions. But unlike when he saw a possible future, there was no way for him to change this outcome.

Theo was dead, a fact he could do nothing to change.

Digging nails into his palms until they broke through skin, Harry forced his breathing to become less erect. Now was not the time to panic.

Pearls of sweat were running down his face and back, an effect of the raising heat and Astoria was no better off, wearing more layers of clothes than Harry had bothered to.

It might just be a part of his panicked imagination, but the orange tinge seemed to have increased in extent.

They needed to leave, but without knowing where the exit was, they could end crawling around until they died from smoke inhaling or the building collapsing on them. Harry wasn't sure how much the building could withstand, in the end they might not have to worry about smoke intoxication.

In the hope of being able to breathe better, Harry lay down on his stomach, gesturing for Astoria to do the same. Harry let his eyes drift from the witch and over the smoke around them.

He had been in the back of the shop when it went wrong. But being thrown around like a ragdoll and afterwards searching for Theo and Astoria had made him lose any sense of where everything was supposed to be.

Astoria had been somewhere in the middle, since the explosion had happened in the front of the shop, it meant that she had been thrown towards the back, which was furthest away from the door.

Slowly turning his head Harry looked in the opposite direction of where Astoria had come from. Assuming that he was right, and the girl had somehow managed to crawl a straight line it meant that that was where the exit would be.

Harry grimaced. The smoke was thick and orange. He disliked the thought of going there, but it was most likely the way they would have to go if they wanted to get out of here.

"What ... spell ... water?" Hopefully his sentence made more sense to Astoria than it did to himself. The lack of proper hearing worried him. How was he supposed to notice it if whatever wards around the shop weren't able to support the building in cases like this?

Having already tried it in a vision, Harry knew from experience that having a building falling on top of you was not a pleasant experience.

Concentrating on the witch, or rather her moving lips, Harry tried to guess what she was saying. But he was hearing nothing but the horrid ringing. "...your wand, I don't...one!" Hopefully her answer had been positive, or they were well and truly screwed. Only when he saw the dark wooded stick in her hand did Harry feel a small burst of relief.

But Astoria wasn't casting the spell, either she did not know how to do it or-

Watching her closely, Harry wanted to curse. By the way her eyes were darting over the part of the floor visible to them, Harry guessed that she was looking for Draco's wand. With how important the magical sticks were to wizards and witches, Harry supposed that he understood her actions. But compared to their lives, a wand was less important. Besides, he knew that Draco had his wand with him, it would not have done anything good in Harry's hands anyway.

"Just cast it on us!" A full, albeit short sentence. That had to be considered an improvement. And if not because he was busy wavering his hands around to get her to understand how important this was, he would have felt relief that the ringing seemed to be submerging slowly into the background, while his hearing was at a comeback.

Just as the temptation to slap her to snap her out of her stupor overcame him, Harry found himself going cross-eyed at the wand pointing at his face. "Aguamenti."

Ice cold water hit him straight in the face, making Harry open his mouth in surprise and breathe in some of the water. Even as he was busy coughing the liquid up from his lungs, Harry felt how every inch of his body was throughout soaked.

The water felt heavenly running over his skin, but already the heat made it begin to evaporate.

As soon as she was done with him, Astoria pointed the wand at herself and repeated the process.

With both of them wet to the bone, the duo got up on all fours and started crawling. Harry was glad that he did not have to explain his half baked plan to Astoria, she trusted him to know what he was doing. Or rather, she trusted the one she thought was her finance to make the right decision. No doubt, that if she knew his true identity, she would be questioning and arguing against every move he thought up.

Or maybe not. Perhaps she was Slytherin enough to set grudges aside and do what might be her biggest chance of survival.

...

Harry wouldn't bet his money on that.

The orange grew more fiery the closer they got, and the air crisp and dry. Harry had Astoria recast the charm on them a second time, and she did it on her own prompting once more before they both knew that they were too close to bother doing it again.

Sweat trekked down his face, stinging his already sore eyes as they drew closer. Even he could hear the crackling of the high flames. At that moment Harry wanted nothing more than to retreat and search for another way out of this place, the heat was getting worse and closer.

But he had no guaranty that there would be another exit they could use, and the longer they hesitated, the less their chances became.

If he was wrong about this, they would burn to death. Astoria might have some handy spell up in her sleeve that could get her safely through, as unlikely as it sounded. It was not exactly the kind of thing the students were taught in Hogwarts, and he doubted that it would be useful turning a table into a pig, it was not time for bacon.

And since he was wearing Draco's robes instead of his usual ones, he did not carry around a potion that would have been useful for this kind of situation.

Once they were back at Hogwarts, Harry intended to give Draco a good talk about the pros of paranoia.

Grabbing Astoria's hand, they stood up together. For this part they needed to move fast, and that was impossible to do as long as they were down on all fours. Though knowing that she was not able to see it, Harry sent her an encouraging smile, at the same time he clenched her hand, signalling to her that they had to get moving.

Astoria pulled her collar up, using it as a mask against the smoke and Harry mimicked the action, his eyes already stinging from the onslaught of smoke.

It was hot.

Scratch that, hot didn't describe what Harry felt at the current moment.

It felt like every single nerve in his body had been set on fire by the surrounding flames.

Even with the water Astoria had doused them in, Harry could feel the flames lick his skin. The small hairs on his arms were scorched, feeling his skin starting to blister because of the intense heat Harry knew that this had been a bad idea. Yet, when he felt Astoria's hand clench his own, Harry kept his legs moving, forcing himself to continue moving in the direction he hopped would get them out of the burning heat.

He couldn't breathe and everything frigging _hurt_.

He was sure that he was screaming, but the sound did not reach his own ears.

Was Astoria also screaming? Harry couldn't hear her if that was the case, but no doubt that she was in the same amount of pain as him.

So she probably was screaming, but she was going through this because she believed that Harry, or rather Draco, would be able to get her to safety.

And suddenly, he was able to suck in several breaths of blessed air.

He was falling, dragging Astoria down with him, or was it the other way around?

But they were out, that much Harry was sure of, then why didn't the burning stop? He could still see flames, though far from as many and big as there had been before.

He hit the ground hard, knocking the air out of his lungs.

For a moment he simply laid there, unable to breath, think or do anything at all. He felt like he was on fire, and yet he could not muster to do something about it.

Why couldn't he get his body to move when it was clear what it was supposed to do?

A scream was ripped from him when something hit every inch of his body, drenching him throughout. Had someone been waiting outside the shop to catch any survivors and make sure that the job was finished?

It felt like he was being doused with liquefied fire.

But then a droplet found its way into his mouth. It was water.

Someone was actually pouring blessed cold water over his pained body. Had he been able to, Harry would have gotten onto his knees and thanked the person as Merlin second coming.

As it was Harry could only lay on the ground as it turned muddy under him, taking deep breaths of blessedly smoke free air.

He wanted to cry out as he started coughing, the movement jostling his already pained body.

"Easy there. You took quite the damage in there. Give yourself a moment to get yourself together. Your friend is going to be fine, too." Someone crouched down next to him, and the force of the water washing over him lessened, warning Harry that this would probably not last for much longer. "As soon as you can, get the two of you out of here. I know that you will not feel up to move soon, but it will be for your own sake. Out here you make a too easy target, Harry."

The voice stopped after that, and Harry distantly heard them get up and start walking away.

Yet when he lifted his head from where it had been resting on the ground, ignoring the flare of pain the move brought to his neck, the speaker was gone from sight.

Not that it was a hard task to accomplish with the current situation. The main street of Hogsmeade had fighting people no matter where he turned his gaze to. Spells were flying through the air, though there was a noticeable lack of green lights, meaning that there was no Death Eaters nearby, as those were the only ones legally allowed to use the killing curse.

It did not mean that the curses used had any less of an ill intend behind them. That much was clear to Harry as he watched how one body fell backwards, its head missing.

All hopes he had had that the explosion might have been because of an accident was gone from his mind. Someone had deliberately set Zonko's on fire as a part of the attack on Hogsmeade, doing it while a great deal of Hogwarts' students were there.

The only ones he could think of who would be willing to do so, and had the reason to do it, would be the Order of the Phoenix.

Disregarding his body's objections, Harry pushed himself up, his arms shaking in their effort to support him.

He was not angry.

No, angry didn't seem fit to describe what he was feeling. It was as if some of the flames had been stuck inside him, overriding the lingering nothingness from Theo's death, along with the pain and fear.

Staggering to his feet, Harry found that he could go no longer. Glancing down to his left, Harry frowned at their still connected hands. Astoria was a limp weight, and by the way her eyes were closed and her mouth half open, Harry would say that she would not be getting up on her own anytime soon.

It would be simple to give in to the temptation, lay down and join the witch in the world of unconsciousness.

Resolutely he shook his head, wincing at the jarring, and tried to think.

He couldn't do that, and he couldn't just leave Astoria here, that wasn't an option. So far, they had been unnoticed, but for how long would that last?

But neither could he take her with him. Merlin, when he was not even sure about what kept him standing, how was he supposed to carry her along?

As if by its own, Harry's only free hand snatched out and grabbed hold of the robes of a passing person, effectively bringing them to a stop. For the second time that day Harry found himself staring at the end of a glowing wand. Judging by the look on the Hufflepuff's face, the boy was just as surprised by his own action as Harry was.

The scowl on Harry's face made the student lower his wand faster than any word possible could have made him do. "Where are the Death Eaters?" His throat constricted, making Harry swallow so not to break into a coughing fit.

It was a valid question. Given how close they were to Hogwarts, the place should be swimming with them by now.

Unless the Order of Phoenix had arranged it so no message about what was going on would reach the castle.

If that was the case, then they were well and truly screwed.

"You need to get to Hogwarts, alert the first person you find of what is going on here." The panicked look the boy gave him at this made Harry doubt that the Hufflepuff would do much good, but it wasn't like there was anyone else Harry could stove this task onto. "Take Astoria and go to Honeydukes. In the storage room you will find a passage under the floor that will take you directly to Hogwarts. But Merlin show you mercy if you do not take her along and protect her, because I'll not."

Satisfied by the terrified nod he got, Harry handed over Astoria's hand to the Hufflepuff. He supposed that he should not be surprised that the boy didn't dare to protest. After a dash through the flames none of them was a pretty sight. "O-of course, Malfoy." Spluttering the Hufflepuff kneeled down, Harry helped to his best ability until Astoria was somewhat secure on the boy's back, her chin resting on his broad shoulder.

"Remember, Honeydukes' storage room, and be careful who sees you." The last thing they needed was for the Order members to find a way inside Hogwarts. He still wasn't sure where the knowledge of the passage came from. Surely he would remember it, if he had had a vision about it, and Harry sure as hell hadn't walked that way before.

And yet he knew that it would be there. All there was left was to hope that the Hufflepuff would be able to find it and that no one would be in their way.

Watching their back Harry realise that he could have followed along. It would probably have been the smartest thing to do considering that he wouldn't be able to do much good here.

And yet when he finally started moving, it was in the opposite direction of where he had sent them off to. He needed to find out if the rest of his friends were okay. After that, he would think of something.

It hit Harry that something didn't quite add up. The Hufflepuff had called him Malfoy, and since he and Draco were as different as day and night when it came to their looks, he could safely say that it had not been a mistake.

And yet the stranger who had doused them with water had called him by his birth-name, something Harry was sure should not have happened while the Polyjuice Potion was still working.

Not sure what to make of this, Harry pushed the thoughts aside for later consideration. Right now he'd other and more important matters to focus on.

**Sniff...No, and I had such great plans for Theo. I blame his death on Mortimus, who confiscated all my chocolate. As if I believe that it's that time of the month for him yet, the moon isn't full yet. **

**Anyway, can someone please explain me what a drabble is?**

**Unwanted Bonds by CelticKitsune**


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

A body crashed through the window he had passed, sending shards of glass flying. Harry's arms flew up to cover his head from them. The man skidded over the ground and came to a halt. After a few moments did it become clear that he would not be getting up anytime soon.

Lowering his arms again Harry started walking as fast as he could without breaking into a run, keeping close to the shops and houses as he did so, and the meagre space there was to move around there.

He had managed to stay undetected until he realised that he was still carrying around his Invisibility Cloak, something he hadn't been able to leave back at the castle, which had proved to be a wise decision on his part.

So far, he had managed to be lucky, but Harry wasn't sure how long it would last. It was starting to drain him all those time a stray spell had come close to hitting him. If it continued like this, he would sooner have a heart attack than end up being cursed.

What unsettled him even more was before he had put on the cloak, he had gone mostly unnoticed. He would have thought that Draco would make a bigger target in a situation like this. But he had been overlooked, almost as if he had already put on the cloak, but at that time it had still been safely hidden in his pocket.

Not that Harry was complaining. He was well aware of how low his chance for success was if he had to go up against a wand wielder.

Stumbling over someone's cut off arm, the fingers still securely closed around the wand, Harry leaned against the wall behind him, trying to catch his breath. Meanwhile, his eyes were going over what was going on around him.

There was something wrong with the picture he was looking at.

A glance over the people in view revealed nothing to him. They were fighting, and, though he had no idea what half of the spells they used were, Harry knew that it would be in his own best interest to not get hit by any of those.

It wasn't because of the lack of Killing Curses flying, though it meant that help had yet to arrive. But the Order of the Phoenix was known for rarely using spells that had been labelled dark by the old Ministry. Apparently they believed that it made them the good guys.

In Harry's mind it only made them bigger fools than they had already been. If you had to fight, then wasn't it better to use whatever was available to ensure your victory? It was one more thing to the list of reasons to why he would not be joining them.

Now where he took the time to look closer, Harry realised that not all were fighting all out. It might just be something he imagined, but some of those at the street seemed almost as if they were trying to drag time out, especially those he recognised as known Order of the Phoenix members. The red hair was rather hard to overlook, though he only managed to catch a brief glance of the one whom he guessed was the Weasley patriarch.

Why were they attacking Hogsmeade, what was the purpose for doing so? They were risking their lives, and for what reason, a decoy perhaps? If he didn't know better he would say that they were looking for something...or someone.

Harry wanted to bang his head against something hard. He didn't like the answer his brain supplied him with, but it seemed so likely that it was not something he could dismiss as having no importance.

They were looking for him, which also explained why they seemed less interested in the town people and students who stood up against them. As a squib it wasn't like Harry was about to hurl any kind of spells at them.

But Draco was posing as him, and with the three Lestranges he was well protected and should be on his way back to Hogwarts, if he was not already there. So why had the Order members not withdrawn already?

Unless something that hindered their retreat had happened.

A chill went through Harry at that thought. If something happened to Draco, magic or no magic, Harry would make sure that the responsible ones got to pay their dues.

Shaking his head, Harry tried to calm himself with the knowledge that he didn't know any of this for sure. For all he knew this attack could be happening for some other reasons unknown to him.

Somehow that did nothing to calm Harry's sense of foreboding.

Knowing that he couldn't leave before he got answers to at least some of his questions, Harry pushed away from the wall, stumbling a little before regaining his balance. Perhaps he needed to get his head wound checked, it couldn't be good if it was affecting his sense of balance. Of course the headache from keeping the vision at bay wasn't any help either.

He wasn't sure how long he had before the hour would be over. Sure, he was under the Invisibility Cloak, but accidents happened, and he didn't want to think of what would happen if an enemy saw him once he had changed back.

To Harry the time limit had already been passed, but damn if he could be sure. He supposed he would know when the hour had gone when he changed back. As long as he kept the cloak on it should not matter.

Harry reached the edge of the town when things starting heading south for him.

Unlike when he had turned into Draco, Harry didn't feel his body stretch or his bones wrenching when he returned to his normal self. Harry knew that the change took a little time to happen, but it seemed rather notice able when his feet were swimming in Draco's shoes which were at least once size too big for his feet and he had to pull up the trousers unless he wanted to fall in them.

Having tried the Polyjuice Potion before, Harry was well aware of how painless the process normally was. But with burns, wounds and what not, it was an entire different talk.

Trying to get used to the changes Harry cursed under his breath. This was bad. Though with the cloak on, Harry knew that accidents could, and often would, happen. It also meant that he had spent less time in the shop than Harry had originally felt like it had been.

Now would have been good to have the other Polyjuice Potion he had seen Draco stuff back into his pocket before they had parted. But to get that he would have to find Draco first.

All hopes Harry had that his friend would be safely back at Hogwarts, were crushed as the Shrieking Shack came into view.

Draco, somehow still looking like him, was there. Wondering how Draco could still be wearing the disguise, Harry felt relief at seeing that Draco was guarded by the Lestranges. The blond had not drawn his wand, apparently opting to make this last for as long as possible.

Three of the four were moving, though making sure that they didn't get far from Draco and keeping him covered, both with their bodies and a dome that they were toeing the line with, but never crossing.

Coming closer Harry got the chance to see the reason to why the trio had been tasked with keeping him, or in this case Draco, safe.

Some of the Order members had the group mostly surrounded, ensuring that they had no way to retreat, while attacking the shield that protected the small group.

Yet, it was as if there was a telepathic connection between the three Lestranges. Harry was sure that Legilimency needed eye contact to work, but he would need to check up with Severus once he saw the man again.

They moved in sync, throwing curses at their attackers while keeping Draco and each other covered. When Rabastan kneeled down and started drawing something on the ground, his brother was quick to change his stance so he could cover a bigger area. Bellatrix was on the other side of Draco, crackling like a happy child and throwing insults with a sped that matched the one of the spells she used.

Unlike those at the street, the Lestranges were not hesitant to use lethal curses, the Killing Curse included, along with several others that would normally result in a long stay in Azkaban for using them.

Together they made an impressive sight, reminding Harry why they had been chosen as a part of Voldemort's inner circle from a young age.

But as impressive the sight was, it quickly became clear that the small group was at a disadvantage, despite being ruthless about every attack they lashed out with. The sheer number of the Order members they were up against made it seem like each time one was taken down, two more were ready to take over the spot of their fallen comrade. Just like the Lernean Hydra grew two more heads after one was slain.

Right now was not the time to ponder on where Dumbledore had managed to get this many followers from.

If it kept going like this, Harry wasn't sure how long their defences would last.

As it was the attacks were bouncing off the shield, thanks Morgana for that. But a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach warned Harry that it might not last. The continued existence of the dome only seemed to encourage the attackers to try more, but none of them had reached a deadly level. It was mostly because they didn't want risking who they thought was Harry.

When Draco's Polyjuice Potion stopped working for him, Harry knew that they would no longer view that as an obstacle.

What they needed right now was a diversion, big enough to give his friends the chance to get away, or at least somewhere where they had a better chance of defending themselves.

It was a shame that he didn't have the usual potions with him, the one he had used at Diablo's cage, mixed with some others would have caused a reaction perfectly suited for a situation like this.

The only objects he had on his person which were remotely magical were the bracelet and his Invisibility Cloak. One he could not take off and the cloak was the only thing that stopped anyone from realising that there was one Potter too many here.

But thinking time was cut short when a spell broke through the barrier, making it crumble and disappear, and stuck Rabastan right in his chest. Harry didn't care for what the curse was called, but he recognised it from when blood started seeping through Rabastan's dark purple robes from the wounds appearing on his chest.

Shock painted his face as Rabastan stumbled sideways, knocking into Rodolphus and effectively knocking the other's concentration as Rodolphus turned to support the other's weight, leaving himself open for a Stunner which wasn't seen before it was too late to get out of the way.

Bellatrix was too busy to notice that the two wizards had fallen. The moment the barrier was gone, the rebels had doubled the intensity of their attacks. It didn't seem to bother her the slightest as she danced around, taking down one enemy after another. Unfortunately, the witch's strength laid in offence rather than defence. And no matter how crazy or brilliant she might be, not even Bellatrix was able to keep going when odds were against her.

She was hit by two different spells at once, Harry was not sure about what they were or what they did, but at this moment he found that he couldn't take his eyes of Draco, who was standing alone, one hand inside his robe, probably looking for his wand.

A strong wind knocked the hood off Harry and he may have done something to catch Draco's attention, because his friend chose that moment to look and their eyes caught.

Harry was aware that Draco's lips were moving, though not sure what Draco wanted to tell him, it almost seemed like he was repeatedly saying sorry, but he might be wrong about that. Why would Draco be saying such a thing? Draco was a firm believer that Malfoys were always right, and thus they had no reason to apologise. So why would he start doing so now?

Noticing that Draco was holding his arm strangely Harry's eyes travelled downwards and his whole body froze as he stared at the wand that was unmistakably pointing at him. Seriously, what was it with people and pointing their wands in his direction? This was the third time it happened today, but the previous two times Harry had a rather good idea of the wielder's intention.

This time he had no clue about what Draco might have in mind. Astoria had done it because Harry had asked for it, and the Hufflepuff boy because some instinctive inside him had told him to defend himself.

Neither instances were like this and Harry remained still, waiting to see what Draco intended to do, though now was neither the time nor the place to do so. He needed to think of something he could do, but his body seemed unable to move.

The rebels were closing in on Draco, in fact they had been doing so before Bellatrix had even hit the ground. It meant that this whole interaction between them had been much shorter than Harry felt had been the case.

Yet, Draco was paying them no mind, only moving slightly to side when one of the rebels got in between them. That ended Harry's hopes that Draco might be pointing the wand at him by accident.

Why wasn't Draco attacking them? If he used his wand, the Order members were bound to realise that it was not the real Harry Potter they were dealing with.

Seeing sparks shot out of Draco's wand Harry moved to the side. But the spell caught him in the shoulder. Just before he blanked out Harry saw one of the rebels grabbing Draco's arm, the blond not even having tried to escape, and Apparate away. The only thing left was Draco's wand which the normally blond wizard had dropped the moment his spell hit its goal.

As he hit the ground Harry felt blackness surge forward to wrap around him like a mother's loving arms.

It was not unusual for him to see a vision repeatedly, and sometimes something happened along the road that changed the vision to a certain degree, but still leaving it recognisable.

However, this was the first time Harry was experiencing seeing himself in a vision, quite literary.

It was quite a strange sight, and slightly worrying, but not as worrying as the other version of the vision had been where he had been the one to be watched by Dumbledore. The other him was looking ruffled, and the usual braid was half undone, and adding the drying cakes of mud on the black shaded robes left Harry with the impression that the other him hadn't gotten there by his own will. But there was a lack of bruises and wounds so the fight he might have put up couldn't have been that great.

But with magic added into the calculation Harry guessed that the lack of damage was not so telling.

Once again he was in the tent, the perch empty, himself and Dumbledore sitting across each other.

There was no bindings holding this Harry in place, but already having experienced this, Harry knew that magic was used instead of physical bounds.

"Would you mind a lemon drop?" The Harry on the chair looked up at Dumbledore for the first time, while Dumbledore was watching the second Harry with crinkles around his blue eyes.

Harry stepped closer, stopping when he felt the edge of the table against his hip, his gaze never leaving the pair as he waited to see what would be happening. He was completely overlooked, which calmed Harry's fast beating heart since this proved that he was not a part of the vision, this time he was merely observing.

The other Harry said nothing, and after waiting for a while but getting no response Dumbledore ate the offered sweet.

Harry watched as his other self sat stiff in the chair, looking above Dumbledore's head and not meeting the old man's eyes, how strange.

"My boy, you shall know that I am immensely happy that you have finally seen reason. Your parents would be proud to know that you have decided to return to us. With the aid of your visions, we will be able to turn the tide of this war." Finishing speaking, Dumbledore rested his chin on his intervened hands.

Both Harrys snorted, but only one of them gained a look of concern from the white bearded wizard. "It was my choice to come here, but if you believe that this will make a difference in your petty little rebellion, you are sadly mistaken." As this was said the hair of the other Harry started to lighten in colour until it turned blond.

**)00(**

Merlin, he felt like he'd been trampled over by a herd of rampaging Hippogriffs.

Right now he wanted nothing more than to sink back in the darkness, even if it meant that he might witness another vision.

Oh, he had had a vision. It was similar to the one where he had awoken and bitten his hand until it was a bloody mess. But it was not something he could simply push aside and forget. Besides, Draco had been in it. So, his friend had really been kidnapped and brought to Dumbledore under the belief that Draco was him.

Which meant, that he couldn't afford lying around, he should get up and report what he had observed.

It would be easier to do if his body wasn't dead set on staying right where it was.

What had happened to make it be like this?

Now he remembered it, Draco had fired some kind of spell at him, effectively knocking Harry out so he could not do something to help his friend. Next time he saw Draco, Harry would make it understood that he did not appreciate such antics.

But whatever Draco had done was wearing off, seeing as Harry at least was able to produce conscious thoughts. That had to be considered an improvement, which was probably the only positive thought Harry could come up with right now.

Back to his original problem, he needed to get up, or at least open his eyes, so he could get an idea of what the situation was.

He could also just stay right where he was, waiting for the spell to wear off on its own, after all he couldn't even as much as twist a finger.

"Enervate."

Or, he could also just let someone cast the counter spell on him, which worked just as well.

Despite every cell in his body seeming to be in pain, Harry spun into movement. If he had been found by an enemy, he couldn't allow them to get him. And if they already had taken him somewhere, he would do his best to escape them.

Grabbing the nearest object Harry flung it at where the voice had come from. By the sound of it he had hit its target, thought Harry doubted that his attack had had much of an effect. As strange as it was the object he had thrown had felt very much felt like a pillow.

And then he rolled off the soft surface he had been on, which was definitely not the ground he had been lying on before losing consciousness.

He landed on what felt like stone floor with a huff, heeling rather battered as he rolled back towards whatever bed he had managed to fall off, stopping when he was on his stomach and a wall stopped him from moving further in that direction.

Knowing that he needed to know where he was so he could get away, Harry opened his eyes, and turned his head so he could look over him and found himself to be what looked to be beneath a bed.

Sneezing a couple of times Harry decided that whoever the owner of the bed was, they seriously needed to get some cleaning done. It couldn't be healthy for anyone to sleep with so much dust under their bed.

"It is not beneath me to pull you out of your little hiding place, brat. Now get out from there so I can see how much damage you have managed to do to your empty head with that stunt of yours." Relief filled Harry at the well-known and calming sound of Severus' voice. He doubted that anyone would be able to get the snark just right even with the aid of potions and spells.

It meant that he was safe.

Unless he stayed where he was any longer, it might cause Severus to lose what little patience the Potions master possessed when it came to dealing with something not potion related.

It took a bit longer to get out from the bed than it had taken for him to get under it. His hands especially were sore, though not to the degree Harry knew that they were supposed to be after his tour in the flames. But it was enough to make him grimace whenever his hands came in touch with something.

Free from his hiding place, Harry rolled around so he was on his back and could look up at Severus. From this point of view the man looked unnatural big, almost like a giant, even if he was sitting down.

As he lay on the floor and simply looked at Severus, Harry started to notice several hints on the man that told him that something was off. The unusually pristine black robes were rumbled, almost like he had slept with them on, but he had dark bags under his eyes, reminding Harry of a panda. The long hair, which looked somewhat greasy on a good day, looked like Severus had spent a whole week over a cauldron non-stop without bothering to use the usual protecting oils he used to prevent that result.

"Get up from the floor." The curt voice left Harry with no room to argue. Not that he planned on doing so. The floor was not a particularly comfortable place to rest on.

Getting back onto the bed where he sat on the edge of the mattress, Harry realised that he was back in his old room. Despite the look Severus sent him, Harry didn't move any further. He refused to lie down. He had gotten enough rest to last him for a long while.

Severus chose not to comment on it. "Sit still." Doing as he was told, Harry let Severus get up and probe the skin near his hair line. When the long fingers pressed against a particular sore spot, Harry could not quite contain a wince. "I cleaned it for dirt before appending the potion to heal the gash, but you can expect to be tender there for the next day. Your hands will take longer to heal, though the burns were easily taken care of, you need to be careful as the skin on them re-grows, otherwise you risk that something might be deformed, which will become a hinder in future potion brewing." The man drawled.

Harry nodded, stared down at his bandaged hands. How exactly had he not noticed this before? Now where he was aware of it, Harry could feel a dull lingering pain. No doubt that the potions he had been feed were still working on undoing the damage done to his hands.

Pushing Severus' hand away, careful of using his wrist instead of the damaged appendages, Harry stood. "We need to find Draco." Perhaps, if they were lucky they would find Draco before something was done to the blond. A quick glance out of the window behind him, told Harry that the sun had only started rising. For how long had he been asleep? It was valuable time lost.

Knowing that the Burn Paste took time to work after it had been applied, it meant that Dumbledore would already know that he had gotten his hands on the wrong person.

He wasn't sure how they should locate Draco just from the vision, but he would think of something.

He was pushed back onto his bed and Severus moved so he stood in the way for Harry to get up again. "Draco has yet to be located. Where is he? I assume that your vision included him?" Harry was taken back by Severus sudden eagerness. It was rare that Severus let bigger emotions escape him, and seeing it only served to put Harry on an edge.

"We both drank the Polyjuice Potion, so we could pass as each other at Hogsmeade." Harry found it hard to meet Severus' gaze while speaking, and yet he could not look away. Though the position he had to tilt his head backwards into, was anything but comfortable. It also bared his throat, but if anyone, it was Severus he trusted not to harm him, no matter how much darker Severus seemed to grow as Harry told him his side of the story, ending it with the vision he had witnessed.

At the end of it, his voice broke and Harry decided that it was not to speak more. Instead he stared at Severus, waiting to see what the man planned on doing.

Harry startled when a vial with a Sleeping Draught in it landed in his lap, uncorking it and taking a quick sniff confirmed his suspicion. "I think I've slept enough." He said, not letting go of the vial. He would put it behind Severus to force the potion if he felt he had to. Severus hadn't done it before, but right now Harry wasn't sure how far he could push Severus before the man decided to snap.

"You need rest. Despite being healed, your body still requires sleep so it can restore your energy levels. And a stunner induced one does not count." Severus trapped his wand against his thigh, a clear sign that he was at his last wit and expected obedience. Under normal circumstances Harry would probably have complied, but he needed answers and there was only one person here who could give them to him.

"Why didn't anyone come to our help?" He rattled the question off in a fast pace, not giving Severus a chance to silence him before he had asked his share.

Two fingers pinched the bridge of Severus' nose, but Harry decided to overlook the almost screaming proof of Severus' annoyance. The man couldn't simply expect him to go back to sleep without protests, at the same time he knew that the longer it took reporting the vision, the lesser the chance of finding Draco might be.

But that was the reason to why Harry had only asked one question out of the myriad of thousands which were mingling around in his head.

"Drink it before you sleep again, it will ensure that you sleep undisturbed, we will be talking later." Harry sat as frozen as Severus turned and swept out of the room, the robe swiping in his leave.

Sighing in resignation Harry buried his head in his hands, with his arms solid planted on his knees. Seriously, he shouldn't have been surprised by Severus' choice of actions. Draco was Severus' godson, and knowing that Draco was missing and in the hands of the enemy had to be just as awful to him as it was for Harry.

Harry counted to thirty in his head, and then he repeated the process twice, just to make sure that Severus had been given plenty of time to leave their quarters.

Removing his hands, Harry rubbed his eyes with the sleeve of the pyjamas top he was wearing, making sure that there was no sign of the withheld tears. "Dobby."

A pop sounded, and, despite having expected it, Harry nearly jumped out of his own skin when Dobby appeared not far from where he sat.

The house-elf eyed him nervously. Undoubtedly, Dobby remembered his lie when Harry had called for him the last time. Harry certainly hadn't forgotten, despite the pleasant result he had gotten out of it.

Knowing how house-elves worked, Dobby had already punished himself plenty for it, probably far harsher than Harry would like to think of.

The whole thing kind of paled in comparison to the last twenty-four hours. At least he hoped that no longer time had passed. Severus' hadn't mentioned anything about how long he had been out for.

Before Dobby could speak, or possible punish himself further for tricking Harry, the seer spoke up. "Can you find out if my friends are alright?" It was something which had gnawed on Harry consciousness since he remembered what had happened.

Were they okay, or had any of them been as unlucky as Theo? Merlin, he hoped not. He had seen the Lestranges' fall, and though there had been a lot of blood, he doubted that they had died. If nothing else, then because whatever afterlife that might be, wasn't ready to face Bellatrix' craziness.

Somehow, he doubted that those on the other side would ever be ready, and therefore Bellatrix might get to live forever and unleash her terror on the world long after they all were gone.

At least Harry was sure that none of them shared Draco's predicament. The Order members had not seemed interested in going after anyone but him, or at least the one whom they thought was Harry Potter.

Still, he would rather know for sure than be taken by surprise at some later time.

Draco was in the hands of the rebels, and Dumbledore would be mad that his small lapdogs had taken the wrong person. And, they would most likely take their anger out on Draco. In their eyes he was an enemy they had in their power.

But that he hoped he would be able to change.

By the time Dobby returned, Harry had gotten up and dressed himself. His fingers occupied with braiding the last part of his hair, Harry raised an eyebrow at Dobby, who was jumping from one foot to another, as if he was standing on hot coal. "Mr. Blaise Zabini is being moody in the den of snakies, with Ms. Pansies Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle is being with him. The three Lestranges is being in a naughty moodsy in the Healing room."

Hearing this Harry let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding since Dobby's arrival. At least the rest of his friends were alive, if not alright. The knowledge of their welfare relieved Harry of a small part of the burden he felt resting on his shoulders.

A thanks was on his lips, but Harry swallowed the word, not needing to deal with a hysteric house-elf right now. "Is there anyone in the Potions laboratory?" He asked, finishing the braid and using a leather band to ensure that it would not wound up.

"Great Master Harry Potter is being resting, not is brewing nasty, smelly potions." The last part was being muttered, as if Dobby didn't intend for Harry to hear it, even though they were standing within touching distance of each other.

Harry's other eyebrow joined the other one on its way up to his hairline, while he weighted his options carefully. He couldn't very well order the house-elf to leave and not tell anyone something. He wasn't Dobby's master and thus, Dobby could find someone and tell on him. That was something Harry would like to avoid.

It also meant that he couldn't simply order Dobby away, it would lead to the same result.

Harry supposed that it left him with one choice of action.

So in one move he crouched down, bringing himself to eyelevel with Dobby, and he allowed a friendly smile to slip onto his lips. "Listen, Dobby." Harry spoke slowly, as if trying to communicate with a small child. "I know I need to rest, but I can't do so in a bed. I need something to do or I will go crazy. Making potions relax me, so I will be following orders and be happy." He opted for a glad voice that sounded much too stiff to his own ears to be believable.

Dobby took hold of his large ears and tugged at them harshly. Green, tennis ball sized eyes turned on him. "Great Master Harry Potter is liking making nasty, smelly potions?" Harry nodded the move felt more easy than the smile he was forcing himself to keep up. "The nasty, smelly Potions room is being empty." Dobby squeaked, leaving with a pop before Harry could possible ask more that made the house-elf feel like he was going against orders of some kind.

A little tired Harry got back up on his feet, minding his sore hands. It was best he got going before Dobby remade his mind and came back to tie Harry to the bed, or something equally annoying that the house-elf thought would mean that he was being helpful.

Shortly after that, Harry departed. He hadn't been able to locate his Invisibility Cloak, but Severus had most likely confiscated the piece of fabric to prevent a situation like this. It merely made Harry all the more determined to not get caught.

With long strides Harry moved through the castle's lower levels. The few portraits he passed on his route paid too much attention for his own liking. Harry hoped that it was merely a passing interest and not because they had been told to keep an eye on him. If so, Harry would end up in trouble much sooner than he had counted for.

He met no students, or any other people on his walk. It wasn't late enough for the curfew to be in place, so was it because of the recent attack? Harry wondered what the consequences of it would be. In the years he had been at Hogwarts, the Order of the Phoenix seemed to have stuck to small things. An attack there, a kidnapping attempt on a politician there, a murder attack as the words, whether they succeeded or not varied.

It brought to question why they had decided to attack Hogsmeade. How had they known that he would be there, or had it been a lucky guess from them? Somehow he doubted that. It would be rather easy for them to find out. A student, someone for Hogsmeade, and even one of the professors who were loyal to Dumbledore could have spotted Draco prowling around as him and have given the word along to the Order.

So-

Harry's stream of thoughts were cut off abruptly when he walked directly into something hard and unmoving. Muttering a dark curse under his breath and taking a step back while he rubbed his sore nose, Harry glared at the wall he had collided with, wondering where it had come from and why he hadn't seen it.

Two steps to the right was the door which led to the Potions laboratory.

With crossed fingers Harry opened the door, hoping that Dobby had been correct when saying that there would be no one in there. He didn't want to explain what he was doing here instead of being in his bed.

Dobby had indeed been telling the truth. There were no people in there, and no cauldron had a fire lit under it. It meant that Harry wouldn't be disturbed by someone who was in the middle of brewing something and whom needed to check up on the process.

Still, it didn't exactly give him any guaranty for how long he would stay undisturbed.

With that in mind, Harry grabbed a small cauldron from a nearby table, deeming it fit to make the potion he wanted to make, and also big enough to carry the things he needed.

From one shelf he grabbed a jar of bloodroots, taking three before he put the jar back on its place. After that he added seven bat wings, four hairs from a unicorn's tail, willingly given, of course.

As his hands moved, Harry mentally went over the list of ingredients he needed. He took a bigger amount and some ingredients which wouldn't be necessary, all of which he would discard before using the potion. What he would do, would not go unnoticed, but he wanted to make it hard, if not next to impossible, for anyone to figure out how he'd made the potion.

When the cauldron was almost filled to the brim, Harry knew that he was ready to leave. The only problem he had now, was to find somewhere to actually brew the potion. He couldn't very well stay here. Once Severus returned, the man would know he was missing, and this was one of the first places Severus would come looking for him. Depending on his mood, and how quickly he grew tired of looking, Harry might just have long enough to finish the potion and use it before Severus alerted Voldemort that something was going on.

It was lucky that he already had a place in his mind, otherwise he might have been well and truly screwed.

"Severus is going to murder me." There was no doubt about this. Several of the ingredients he'd had taken were costly, both those he needed, but also those he intended to simply throw away to throw them off his track when they would be trying to figure out how he'd made the potion.

Hopefully, he would be able to inform them of Draco's whereabouts before Severus killed him for wasting all those ingredients.

Using the hidden corridors and short cuts he knew of, Harry managed to avoid anyone who might be wandering around in the corridors. He didn't see hide nor back of anyone, and yet Harry felt like he was ready to jump at the first sight of danger.

He guessed he could blame his adrenaline level for his way of acting. Between the attack, Draco's kidnapping and now sneaking around, he didn't have a good chance to relax and not act like a scary cat.

He reached the second floor, and as he stepped out from behind the gargoyle guarding the hidden corridor he had just used, he looked up and down the corridor. Seeing no one, he crossed the open space, ducking his head. The door was quickly opened, and closed again as soon as he was inside the room and away from the open corridor.

Breathing heavily, Harry leaned back against the door, trying to calm his fast beating heart, which felt like it was digging its way out through his chest.

A quick look around proved that there was no one but him in the bathroom. At least, no one alive. "So, you have finally decided to visit me." From one of the toilet stalls Myrtle came floating through the closed wood door. She had her arms crossed in front of her chest and looked anything but pleased at seeing him.

Harry gave her an apologetic smile. It was true, he'd been neglecting his friend. "Sorry, Myrtle. They weren't so keen to let me visit after I found the entrance to the Chamber." It wasn't even a lie. Both Severus and Voldemort had sat down with him and made him understand that they did not approve of him doing something which put his life in danger.

It made Harry wonder how they would react once they found out what he had done. Harry really didn't look forward to that.

Harry shifted his hold a little so Myrtle had a chance to see what he was carrying, Harry said. "But I really missed spending time with you, and I hoped that you could help me with making a potion, I want to surprise the others, and since you are so good at keeping a secret-" He trailed off, not sure if he had overdone it. If Myrtle thought that he was lying to her, she would rattle him out faster than Harry would be able to find somewhere else he could hide.

"Why didn't you say that right away?" Myrtle cooed, looking positively delightful as she floated closer to Harry, her fingers brushing over his wrist without the bracelet. "For you, I'll do my best." She promised, her eyelashes fluttering a strange way.

Harry ignored the cold shiver her touch brought, numbing his whole arm, so he had to force his arm up if he didn't want to drop his things. "Great, Myrtle, in fact there is a very important thing I need your help with." The ghost puffed out her chest in pride, clearly pleased that Harry needed her for something. He supposed that it made sense. Most people didn't ask for ghost's help, unless it was because they had gotten lost, or something equally boring.

Being a ghost sounded boring, unless one was Peeves, who knew how to entertain himself with pranking and creating trouble for the students at Hogwarts.

Still, Harry would rather pass on than have to stay back and watch his friends and beloved ones pass on to whatever happened after this life ended.

That was definitely not happening, and he needed to get back on track if those not so subtle looks Myrtle was giving him meant anything. "I need one more ingredient, which is in greenhouse three. It's called Movens Comedentis, and it shouldn't be hard to find. Since I found it, it wouldn't be stealing. You're merely bringing it back to its original owner and doing me a favour." Sensing that she was not fully convinced, Harry freed a hand and placed it on her shoulder. The coldness attacked him instantly, but he kept his hand where it was, careful not to let it fall through her transparent body, though it proved to be a challenge the longer he had to do this. "Please, Myrtle, I really need it and if I got caught, they'll ground me and then I can't come and visit you." Already before he got a reluctant nod from her, Harry knew that he had won this argument. "Thanks, Myrtle, you're the best."

He tried not to feel bad at the smile she gave him right before she left. It told him that she would expect some form of payment for this.

Since the plant was the last thing he needed, he might as well get started while he had the chance to work undisturbed.

Harry chose to settle down so the sinks were between him and the door. That way, if someone should enter, he would have some time to react. It wouldn't be much, but hopefully it would be enough.

Lighting a small fire under the cauldron Harry waited for it to gain the right temperature, preparing the troll nails and other ingredients he needed while doing so.

He knew that the bathroom was far from the best place to brew such a potion, any kind of potion in fact. With the bacteria, and different light and air, it could cause an unstable potion to explode.

It was a damn good thing that he didn't plan on brewing something, right?

Harry just hoped that luck would be on his side in this.

He had never been allowed to brew this potion himself, after all he had been too young and a squib to boot, and they had known that he would botch up the potion if he was given the chance, even if it would have meant his own death.

The ingredients weren't exactly cheap and he had had every reason to ruin it. Still, Harry was fairly sure that he would be able to brew the potion which had made a big part of his life turn into hell.

When the cauldron reached the proper temperature, Harry dropped the sliced bloodroot together with the crushed troll nails into it. He preferred not to think of what he had done as stealing, though others would probably say otherwise.

If it wasn't for Draco, Harry wouldn't be doing this. Then again, if Draco hadn't been posing as him, his friend would not have been kidnapped, so Harry supposed that this would even it out.

It was strange to think how much things had changed since they first met. Back then they hadn't been able to stand the mere sight of each other. Now he would happily take revenge on anyone who caused as much as a blond strand to be out of place.

It was rather disturbing, if he allowed his thoughts to linger on the subject for too long.

"Harry, I got the plant!" It was only because he had expected her return, that Harry didn't drop the unicorn hairs down in the cauldron when Myrtle spoke up from behind him.

Instead he breathed deeply and waited until the potion turned lavender before dropping the hairs into the potion, stirring five times counter-clockwise.

Then his brain registered what she had said, and Harry twisted around in his seated position on the floor, thankfully it was time for a small break in the brewing anyway, careful that he didn't accidentally knocked over the cauldron by doing so.

Any annoyance he might have felt died right on the spot when he saw that Myrtle was indeed holding the small plant he'd sent her after. It didn't look any different from what it had done when he had dug it out of the soil. "Thanks, Myrtle, you're absolute brilliant." Harry wasn't quite sure if it was even possible, but the ghost seemed to blush, though it could just be a girl thing.

He took the offered plant and placed it by his side. The colder climate in Scotland was enough to keep it docile, at least until someone provoked the plant. It was all about balance. Too cold, and the plant would wither, but if it grew too warm, it would get up and start attacking anyone nearby before moving on to somewhere else.

As it was the flower head was hanging limp. If not because he knew how deadly it was, he would almost have been inclined to feel sorry for it. Almost.

Why was he even trying to figure out what he felt for a plant? That head wound had messed up his mind more than it should have been able to.

Or perhaps it was because this was more comfortable to think about then the other things his mind could dwell on.

When the potion became thick after he had added the pixie wings, Harry sighed. Now he would have to wait for five minutes before he could add the last ingredient. Hopefully, the plant would work as it was supposed to according to theory, otherwise he might be well and truly screwed.

Knowing that time was ticking, Harry gathered the remaining ingredients, leaving the Movens Comedentis where it was. Roughly an hour had passed since he left his room. Severus might have returned and found him gone by now, if that was the case he would be looking for Harry.

He needed to get rid of those before someone stumbled over his hiding place.

After ensuring that he had gotten it all, Harry strode over to the nearest toilet stall. Myrtle followed after him, so closely that Harry could feel the coldness from her seep through his body. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?" She asked worriedly as Harry held the ingredients over the open toilet.

What he was about to do, plagued him. Not only was there several costly ingredients among those he was about to throw out, but Harry knew that he was breaking Severus' confidence in him by doing this. "Don't worry, you won't be blamed." He calmed her as he emptied his arms' content down in the toilet. He flushed it, and kept doing so until he was sure that nothing would resurface.

Inside, he was impressed that the toilet was able to take this much, it had to be because of the wonders of magic. He seriously doubted that a Muggle toilet would be able to take it all.

Satisfied that he had destroyed the evidences, Harry hurried back to the potion, which had started bubbling lazily and turned into a familiar shade of brown.

Harry grimaced, he knew that the thick liquid tasted just as bad as it looked and smelled. It was definitely something which he did not look forward to.

Though, right now he needed to focus on the task at hand.

"So, what does it do? I mean, some people might find it pretty, but it has to have a use, right? It's kind of ugly though." Myrtle's voice came from somewhere over his left shoulder, she was close, but not so she was hovering over him, literary.

Leaning slightly forward, holding a flask ready in one hand, Harry rubbed the plant under its head, watching it steadily lift and move until it was facing him. "It's supposed to help me have some control over what visions I see." Slughorn had come up with the theory while Harry had been staying with the rebels, luckily, because of the plant's rarity; Slughorn had not been able to prove his own theory.

Or, perhaps they had simply not seen the use in letting him have any control. After all, there had been no way that Harry would be willing to see something that would support them.

He had killed the man, and yet, here he was, not even half a year later, and was ready to do something which would prove Slughorn right.

Though the thought of it was more than disturbing, Harry had no intention about backing down now.

Shaking his head, Harry pushed the thought aside. This wasn't what he needed to focus on right now.

The plant jerked back and when it spit, Harry was ready for it. Seeing the yellow coloured substance fly towards him, Harry held the flask up in front of him, catching the poison.

Since he didn't feel any burning pain and no part of him seemed to be melting, Harry would say that it was safe to assume that he hadn't been hit by any of the poison. If that had been the case, he would have been lying on the floor right now, withering and screaming because of the pain.

Harry stared at the poison sceptically. It was thin, yellow and smelled too much like piss for him to be comfortable of the thought of adding the substance to his potion, nonetheless drinking it.

And yet, that was exactly what he planned on doing.

Pushing the plant far enough away, so its poison wouldn't reach him if it decided to spit at him again, Harry placed the flask down.

He needed to add the poison now, at least according to theory he was. If it was done too late, the potion and poison wouldn't mix because of the coldness.

Using his sleeves to cover his palms the best he could, Harry grabbed the handles and lifted the cauldron from the fire. Incomprehensible hisses passed over his lips as the heat went through the thin fabric, a great opposite to the coldness he felt coming from Myrtle who was staying close behind him.

Instead he bit his lip to contain any sounds that might have passed over them otherwise. This was nowhere as bad as what he had felt when he had passed through the fire together with Astoria. But his hands weren't fully healed yet, and thus it felt more painful than it normally would have been.

Harry tilted the cauldron, watching as the thick, brown liquid dripped into the flask, which was held between his thighs.

As soon as the last drop had passed over, Harry placed the cauldron on the floor, wincing as he clenched and unclenched his hands. He would have to check up on the damage done later on.

Right now he just had to wait for the potion to cool down enough so he would be able to drink it.

The door opened, making Harry jerk his head up in surprise that someone had actually decided to use the bathroom. It was supposed to be a place which people avoided.

Green eyes widened when red, angry orbs locked with them. The man was dressed in dark brown robes, and his hair was messed up, another sign that he hadn't had any rest lately was the dark shadows under his red eyes.

A dangerous aurora was surrounding Voldemort, and Harry knew that he was in serious trouble now. The wand which was being lifted to point at him was a great hint about this.

Without a second thought Harry grabbed the flask between his thighs, his hand cramping in protest of being moved. Harry kept Voldemort's gaze as he placed the opening at his lips and tilted back.

As he had known, the potion was way too hot to be drunk, and yet Harry knew that there was no other option. Voldemort would prevent him from doing this if the man was given the chance, and Harry would let nothing stand in his way in his quest for finding Draco.

Harry gagged, feeling his entrails twist in protest over having to digest the disgusting potion. Luckily, nothing came up again, though, at this point Harry might have preferred if that had happened.

As blackness overtook his senses, Harry realised that this might have been a rather bad idea. But unlike all the other times he had been forced to take the dammed potion, Harry didn't fight against the potion's pull.

It was time to see if he could find his friend.

**Next: A rescue mission.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership of Harry Potter, the character, settings or plots that have been born from the magnificent mind of J.K. Rowling. For those too incompetent to understand words longer than two syllables: I do not own Harry Potter. **

_This is Parseltongue_

**Beta: angelhitomie**

It wasn't going according to plan.

Panic washed over him with the all-consuming strength of a tsunami when Harry found himself standing in front of the Veil.

Over the strange whispering from the portal looking device Harry was aware of the sound of people fighting behind him.

His feet refused point blank to follow any command his brain was supplying it with to get him away from there. It was as if they had been nailed to the spot.

Frustrated Harry clenched his fists. He was supposed to find Draco, not stand here, waiting for the push that would lead him to fall into the silver coloured substance. As fascinating as it was to look at, he had experienced the fall enough times for him to grow bored with it.

Then he realised that something was different from all the other times he had viewed this scene. Normally, he would not be able to make as much as a muscle twist before he was pushed, and yet he could feel nails dig into his palms.

Did this mean that something in the vision had changed? Had something happened which meant that he would not actually be at the Ministry of Magic? Perhaps he was only here to observe.

But as he tried to step backwards, something strange occurred. Harry separated from himself.

For a moment Harry could only stand there, staring wide-eyed at the back of his frozen other self. This was weird beyond words, even for him. Why was it that there had to be two of him all the time? Was there some deity out there who had nothing better to do than to mess up his life? At least the last vision had made more sense which had been with Draco Polyjuiced as him, rather than this. Harry doubted very much that the same was happening now. After all, even then they had been separate persons.

It could be because of the added ingredient. He had expected a change in his visions, but this was not exactly it. He should be able to control them, to see visions about whom he wanted, and not merely add a strange tweak to his visions.

But maybe the consequence of losing his virginity had finally decided to show itself?

And there was something different about the other him, which further convinced Harry that Polyjuice was not being used. The other's hair was short and only a little longer than his father's had been by the time of his death, but it was nowhere near his hair's current length. Puzzled, Harry stared at himself, circling the person and wondering what this could mean.

The person he'd split from was definitely him. Other than the different hairstyle, there was no difference between them. They could have been twins for all he knew.

How curious, was he supposed to be the good or the evil twin? He supposed that it depended on who was asked.

That, however, wasn't what he should be thinking about right now. He had to find a vision that could tell him something about where Draco might be. So, as much as he would like to stick around to find out who would cause him to fall through the Veil, and maybe also why his hair had gotten so short, he couldn't.

Turning away from his still self and the Veil, Harry closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to concentrate.

According to Slughorn's theory he should be able to control this, to be able to decide whom or where he viewed. Being separated this way gave him some control, but it wasn't what he was looking for.

This wasn't the way to go if he wanted to find Draco.

Perhaps, he merely needed to approach this from another angle. Severus would have been able to tell him how he was supposed to do this. The man was a genius when it came to the mind, it was necessary, being a master in the mind arts.

Alas, Harry was well aware that it was not a possibility. Severus wasn't there, and Harry would rather not have to go through this again. Though, if he didn't have any luck, he would keep trying until he got this right.

He would have to work with what he had.

He wanted to see something, something which would reveal where his friend was being held by Dumbledore and his Order members. He wanted to see his friend, someone he greatly cared about.

Without even opening his eyes Harry felt how his surroundings changed. This method was actually working. He couldn't believe that luck for once was in his favour.

"James!" Horror filled green eyes snapped open at the desperate yell. No, this wasn't true.

But James and Lily Potter were indeed in the same room as him, in a scenery which Harry had witnessed so many times that he would be able to recall the whole happenings without even closing his eyes.

"Run, Lily. I will hold him back." Hearing his father speak, Harry yelled in frustration, he grabbed handfuls of his hair and pulled hard at it. How difficult could this be? He didn't care about those two people, so why was he even seeing them? They had died, end of story. This was something he wouldn't bother to change, even if given the chance to do so.

And yet Harry couldn't help but sneak a glance around when he noticed that he was standing somewhere else than he normally would when seeing this.

He easily looked past the two well-known people and to the other side of the room.

There he was, once again standing frozen in place, not even wincing when the door passed through him and a new person entered.

But with the dark cloaked person, who seemed to be a part of the vision, something else was there as well. Something which was touching his shoulder and turning his other self around. He couldn't see it properly, but from where he stood, it looked rather much like an actual person.

Before he could get a proper look at the person, Harry was whisked away.

His hands were still in his hair when the sound of crying reached his ears, and white wall were all around him.

Unclenching his hands and letting his arms fall to his side, Harry turned around to face the source of the noise.

Blood drained from his face at the sight which met him.

He was in the Hospital Wing, standing in the doorway and watched people dressed in healer robes bustle around in the hall. He ignored those as they were doing nothing of interest. Instead he found his attention drawn to the bed below a window, which provided him with the sight of Narcissa Malfoy sitting on a small wooden chair next to the bed.

Moving closer Harry observed her closely.

The witch's hair was mostly undone, and tears had ruined her make-up. Her eyes were red rimmed and stared constantly at the unmoving figure on the bed.

Unable to contain his curiosity Harry moved closed until he was standing right next to the lady. He had a feeling that he would not like what he was about to see, and yet he could not get himself to step away.

Draco's face was the only part of him not covered by a white blanket, but this was more than enough to make Harry's stomach roll.

Placing a hand over his mouth in hope that it would prevent himself from vomiting, he had done so before in a vision, and it was absolutely not pleasant to wake up to that mess, Harry felt his eyes grow moist.

The usually pale skin was marred with bruises in all shades, and wounds in different states of healing. It almost looked like someone had taken a knife and decided to see how much of the blond's skin they would be able to peel off with it. Was it the result of a spell, or had the one responsible for this decided to do it by hand?

Harry wasn't quite sure if he really wanted to know.

Harry's gaze stopped at Draco's nose, which was crocked and bloody, as if someone had smashed it with a blunt object to make sure that it was broken.

Was the rest of Draco's body like this? Because of the duvet pulled up to the blond's chin, Harry didn't have a way of knowing.

No matter what, it was bound to be painful once Draco became conscious enough to sense everything.

Though, Harry supposed that it wouldn't happen seeing as Draco's chest was not moving, indicating that his friend was not breathing.

For a moment, Harry felt like he was back to being petrified. He was merely staring at the still form on the bed, barely aware of the sound of crying coming from the distraught mother.

Why was Draco dead? This wasn't meant to happen. Had his friend been beaten to dead, or was it a part of his torture before he had finally been killed with the Killing Curse?

Gulping down big mouthfuls of air, Harry tried to calm himself. What he saw was only a possible future, it wasn't set in stone and this wasn't the first he had seen Draco die.

But the last time he had seen this kind of situation, he had been provided with plenty of clues of how he could stop it. This dead body told him nothing of what he wanted to know, and the flashes of Theo's impaled neck and half-crushed body speeding past his eyes were not helping either.

Harry stumbled backwards, wrenching his eyes away from the sight in front of him. "What do you want me to do? How do you want me to stop this, if I don't know how it happened?!" He was not even sure of who he was yelling to, and neither did he receive any kind of answer.

Then again, who was supposed to hear him? As far as he was aware, he couldn't partake in his visions in a way that would change them. Not even the potion could allow him to do that.

He had found Draco, though it had not been the kind of vision he had wanted. If he tried again, he might have better luck this time around. He would be able to see something which would lead him to where Draco was being held captive, and then this possible future would be naught.

He would make sure of that, even if it was the last thing he did in his life.

**)00(**

The sound of crying followed him out of the vision, and it took Harry a few moments to realise that it came from him and was not just the memory of Draco's mother.

He didn't have time to find out whether this was a part of another vision or not, before his stomach decided that it had had enough.

He just made it to the edge of the bed before starting to vomit. Since his stomach contained no food, it was stomach acid which hit the floor, leaving him with a burning throat.

Harry heaved, but nothing more came up, much to his relief. Slowly he pulled himself back onto the bed, whipping his mouth clean. The taste lingered, but Harry knew that he could do nothing about it until he got something to drink.

It would have to wait, because right now, he needed to gather himself and figure out where the hell he was and what had happened.

He wasn't in Myrtle's bathroom any longer, considering that the last thing he remembered seeing was Voldemort; it was in fact not so surprisingly. Despite how angry the Dark Lord had looked, the man would not have left him on a dirty floor.

He was back in the room he had been granted by Voldemort, the one connected to the other's bedroom.

"_Stupid hatchling, master warned us that you wouldn't be feeling good. Why would you do something so stupid and hurt yourself_?" A forked tongue flickered against the tip of his ear, as Nagini travelled over his body to get on the other side of him. Harry was glad that she didn't try to wrap herself around him. He wasn't sure if his stomach had calmed down just yet, and he wasn't a life sized teddy for the reptile to enjoy.

The last time Harry had seen either of the snakes had been a few hours before he had left for Hogsmeade. Having managed to convince them to stay with Voldemort had seemed like a necessity at that time. If anyone, the snake duo would have been able to figure out that they hadn't been following the real him, as Draco was no Parselmouth, and the Polyjuice Potion did not give you the abilities of the one you looked like.

Now Harry was wondering if it would have been better if they had just let them in on the plan.

"_Go away_." He wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone. And he knew Nagini well enough to know that she would rattle him out if she got any wind of what he planned on doing.

"_Little speaker, calm down_." Diablo's voice sounded from his right, the opposite side of where Nagini was resting next to his body. But Harry didn't pay the snakes any heed. He attempted to push himself up.

It didn't go as well as Harry had hoped that it would. The snakes, sensing what he was about to do, moved so both of their bodies were on top of his.

Despite the weight pinning him down, Harry didn't halt his struggles. He needed to make another batch of the potion. With that he would be able to see something that would ensure that the last vision would never become a reality.

He would make sure of that.

Someone stepped into his range of vision, causing Harry to jerk his head up in an uncomfortable angle to look at them, stopping his struggles momentary as he did so.

Voldemort waved his wand nonchalantly over the puddle of vomit, vanishing the mess together with the smell which helped Harry's stomach to calm a bit. "_You have some explanation to do_." The lack of the usual nickname told Harry more than anything that he was in deep water. Despite a voice in the back of his head advising him to step down for now, Harry didn't lower his eyes or show some other sign of submission.

He wasn't suicidal, but neither was he weak. No matter what his current position was suggesting.

Red eyes narrowed, a hand carting through his lose hair, the fingers entangling themselves in the strands and twisted harshly, forcing hisses of pain over his lips in protest of the harsh treatment. "_What were you thinking_?" Voldemort carried on as if he was speaking to himself rather than holding a conversation with Harry. "_Let me guess, you decided that this was the optimal time to show those Gryffindor genes you inherited from your parents and decided to act like an incompetent, thick headed fool. The Hospital Wing and a great part of St. Mungo's are already filled with patients, and more are incoming. Yet you seem to find it a brilliant idea to brew and drink a dangerous potion, forcing me to assign people, who could spend their time on much more important matters, to figure out what you had drunk. Each of them could instead have focussed on the victims of the recent attacks_." At no point of his rant did Voldemort raise his voice at him, which only made Harry feel worse than the words already did. It didn't help that Harry very well knew that Voldemort was right.

But the anger void from Voldemort's voice was only too evident in his eyes.

By the time he stopped speaking, Voldemort face was so close that Harry could have headbutted him if not for the hand in his hair.

So, the Order of the Phoenix had decided that they were done with sitting idly by. What had brought this change? It couldn't merely be because of Draco's capture. Other of Voldemort's followers had been taken before, without it making any difference for the rebels.

Harry mused that it could be to draw him out. Did they think that he would come running to them to stop them from attacking strangers?

Draco, on the other hand, was a whole other matter.

Harry put his hands under him, trying to get up, and dislocate Voldemort's hand from his hair in the same move. "_It wasn't like I didn't know what I was doing_." He ground out, already knowing that he didn't have much of a chance to make Voldemort see his way. Still, for Draco's sake, he would try. "_It was supposed to make me find where Draco is_."

The words had barely left his mouth before Nagini and Diablo were shoved off the bed by a burst of Voldemort's anger. Harry's eyes widened in realisation of how serious this was. He could feel the magic lick over his skin like angry tongues, which fuelled him with new energy in his struggles to get free.

In a desperate move he kicked his lower body up from the bed, hoping to catch Voldemort with one of his feet despite the impossible angle he was working with.

Voldemort moved his head to the side, effectively avoiding both of his feet.

Before Harry could lash into another attack, he found himself turned around so he had his head on the middle of the bed, with Voldemort on top of him, straddling his hip and keeping his arms captured between Harry's sides and the man's knees. Somehow, though Harry had yet to figure out _how_ it was possible, the hand had yet to leave his hair, and now it was pressing his face against the mattress, constricting Harry's breathing until black spots were dancing in front of his eyes.

Realising that the seer's breathing was becoming desperate, Voldemort loosened his grip enough to allow Harry to lift his head and breathe in deeply, but it was not enough to give him the hope of getting away. "_Let go_."

Deciding that violence would get him nowhere, Harry forced his body to go lax. Perhaps it would go better if he went back to try and explain to Voldemort what he had planned. "_I knew what I was doing. I nearly had the method down when the potion stopped working. All I need is one more try, well, maybe two more, but then I'll be able to tell where Draco is. I won't let him die_!" His face was pressed down against the mattress, cutting off Harry's air supply, and forcing his body into a new bout of struggling as he tried to free his face so he could breathe.

He felt Voldemort lean forward, and the man's warm breath was huffing against his ear. It seemed like he wasn't the only one affected by this. "_The Malfoy heir's state of health is, as of yet, unknown, and until something is known for sure, the search parties will be looking for him, alive_."

Black spots had formed anew when the hand lifted his head from the mattress and Harry wasted no time sucking in several deep breaths. "_Bastard, stop this or I'll make you regret it_." It would have sounded more threatening if he hadn't been painting for air, but Harry meant every word of what he said.

Voldemort would come to regret this, though it was far from as high on his priority list as other matters were right now.

When no reaction came, Harry continued, knowing that now was the time to reveal the vision he had seen. "_He was dead. Do you understand or do I have to spell it out for you? D.E.A.D., that means dead! Beaten up and dead and I won't allow that to happen. Just let me have one more chance. I need another batch of the potion. I'm sure I can find Draco, but I need it to do so_!"

Harry fell silent, waiting to see what Voldemort would do. He was no fool, and knew that lots of things depended on Voldemort's move.

But, one way or another, it would lead to Draco being freed.

He startled when Voldemort shifted and leaned over him and a warm breath washed over his ear. "_Do not take me for a fool, my little seer_." The voice did not raise over a whisper, and yet Harry heard every word perfectly fine due to the physical closeness between them. "_It might have a different way of working, but I am well aware that you drank the same potion which the rebels fed you. Do not for a moment believe that I will allow you to do something so incredible stupid to yourself again. I studied you during your stay in the Hospital Wing, and Severus provided me with the details from when you first ended in his care_."

A surge of betrayal licked his inside upon hearing this. The memories of how scared and weak he had been back then made him scowl at the faraway wall. That had been something he hadn't wanted Voldemort to know about. In fact, it was something he had hoped that Severus would have Oblivated from his mind before he would ever think of sharing those memories with someone else.

"_I find it doubtful that Dumbledore would share the recipe with anyone if it would not be absolutely necessary. So, pray tell me, how did you know how to brew it_?" Voldemort asked, his tone nonchalant as if he was merely discussing the weather.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Harry felt a smirk form on his face all on its own. "_The old man realised that it was necessary when I refused to cooperate_." He admitted, keeping his gaze at the same spot on the wall he had been staring at for the past five minutes. Of course they had tried other methods at first. Withholding food, water and human contact, nothing the Dursleys hadn't already done to him.

They had not dared to take a step further, probably because he had only been a kid at that time, and the rebels did claim that they had some kind of moral. "_In the end I was allowed to visit Slughorn, and observe his work. The man was rather talkative when one first got him started. One of his theories was about how I should be able to control who I saw in my visions. Given how stubborn I had proved to be, Dumbledore decided that it would be worth the effort to test the theory_."

The hand in his hair twisted when he ended the story, and Harry was sure that he felt more than a few strands of hair leave his scalp. If Voldemort kept this up, Harry would have big, bald spots once this was over. "_So, you decided that it would be an excellent idea to mix several ingredients together in an unclean environment, on the off chance that you might find your small friend_?"

Harry kept himself perfectly still, feeling that what had happened next depended on his answer. But, as Voldemort had been so kind to point out for him, Harry had Gryffindor genes running in his blood. "_Of course, he annoys me, but Draco is my friend. If it means that he will be safe, I would gladly give up my own life for him_."

The hand let go and left his hair, much to Harry's relief.

The weight on top of him left together with the hand, though it took Harry's mind a few moments to register that fact. Twisting around, he found himself alone on the bed, and with Voldemort already by the door, though the man was looking at him over his shoulder. "_Your recent actions have proved that you cannot be trusted, especially not with your own health. Until this matter has been solved, you will remain here, and you will not be allowed near potions or potions ingredients in the near future. Understand that this is for your own good_."

With that, Voldemort left and Harry stared, gaping at the closed door.

"Th-that bastard!" He grabbed the nearest object and flung it through the air. The pillow hit the door before falling uselessly to the floor, not doing anything to lessen the pent up frustration raging through him. "Bastard, you can't do this!"

Getting off the bed and onto two unsteady legs, Harry leaned against one of the bedposts, until he was sure that he would not fall over when he attempted his first step. Judging from the tingling sensation in the two limbs he had been out for a while, though he doubted that it had lasted as long as when Moody had forced the potion down his throat.

It was a small, but comforting thought.

Rather wobbling Harry got to the door, banging his fists against the surface. "_You can't do this, it's against our deal! You hear me Voldemort? Let me out right now or I swear by the Founders that you won't get another vision from me, understood?! Let me out right now, so I can find Draco_!" Harry kicked the door, howling in pain as he jumped around on one foot, clutching the other limb between his hands.

Balancing on one foot Harry used every single curse word he had picked up from Severus through the years. If the man had been around to hear him, Harry would have found the vile taste of soap in his mouth. But Severus was not there, and it was just as well, because Harry knew that the Potions master would have sided with Voldemort on this matter.

As the pain lessened Harry dropped his foot. It seemed like Voldemort was perfectly fine with ignoring him for now since his small bout of self harm had not summoned the man.

He sat down, forgoing the furniture in favour of the floor. With a sigh Harry grabbed his shins and rested his forehead on his knees. He was determined that Voldemort would get no more visions from him. By locking him in like this, Voldemort had broken their agreement.

He wasn't safe at Hogwarts any longer, especially not when Voldemort figured this out.

It hurt to admit, but Harry would not deny himself the truth. If Harry didn't hand over the visions by free will, what reason did Voldemort have not to force them out of him? The man would certainly be more ruthless than the Order of the Phoenix had been.

He didn't want that to happen, not after all what Voldemort had done and become to him.

Voldemort wouldn't be given the chance to betray him further, he wouldn't risk that.

Lifting his head and looking down at himself Harry frowned at the green pyjamas he was dressed in. It was kind of amusing how Voldemort insisted for him to dress in Slytherin colours. Almost like a child showing its ownership of a favoured toy.

The smile died off his face, perhaps it was for the best if he focussed on something else.

Instead he glanced out of the window, frowning at the sight of the setting sun. It irked him, that he didn't know how long he had been out for. Hell, he did not even have an idea for how long Draco had been missing. It could have been weeks, and he wouldn't know since people seemed to get off by keeping him out of the loop.

Harry would do his dammed best to prove their effort wasted.

Glancing at the two snakes still at the floor, Harry cracked a smile and got on his feet. "_Might as well take a long, warm bath_." There were spells to take care of such matter, but Harry still felt sweaty and the disgusting taste of stomach acid was still in his mouth. "_Are you coming_?" He asked, looking over his shoulder to see that Nagini and Diablo were hot on his heels.

Getting inside, Harry stepped aside, allowing the reptiles to get in as well. "_Sorry about this, but I'm afraid that it's necessary_." A pair of heads turned in his direction as Diablo and Nagini realised that they had just been tricked. Harry gave them a small wave as he stepped out of the bathroom, quickly closing and locking the door from the outside. The thumps that sounded as he did this, told Harry that the snakes hadn't stopped before they hit the door in their haste to stop him.

He let the key stay in the hole, wishing that his two friends would not suffer in the time they were locked in. No doubt that they would be out again in a few hours, and they had plenty of water, and each other as company.

It did nothing to soothe the guilt gnawing his stomach from the inside.

Wiping his hands clean of sweat on his pants, Harry looked around, contemplating what his next step of action should be. He needed to get out of here before he could do anything. He didn't bother to try with the door again. It was locked and that little thing wouldn't have changed. And even if he got the door open, Voldemort would be alerted by the enchantments the man had probably placed to prevent Harry from running of.

So, the option was out of the window.

Harry groaned in protest, even if he knew that it was the best choice.

Looking at the window, Harry's frown deepened. The sun had almost disappeared behind the line of trees.

He really didn't feel like crawling around on the outdoor walls like an Acromantula, and yet he knew that he would be doing just that because he didn't see any way around it.

"I hate when it goes like this." Despite his own words, Harry went to the window. Since Voldemort had made it clear that he would not be let out in the near future, he would have to do this. Severus wouldn't be inclined to help him either. After all, Severus had helped him through the after effects of prolonged use of the vision generating potion. If he added the stress about Draco's missing status, there was no doubt in his mind that Severus would be furious right now.

If he at least had known Draco's whereabouts, he might have been able to soothe Severus' ire. Then again, if that was the case, then he wouldn't be needing help in the first place.

Since Severus would be keeping his potions ingredients under lock after his last stunt, he couldn't brew the potion again. It would take too long to gather the ingredients on his own, time he didn't have if he wanted to make a difference.

Opening the window Harry was taken by surprise by the blast of cold wind hitting him straight on. Now he was looking closer, Harry noticed that dark clouds were gathering in the horizon and moving this way.

It would work for him. The darker it was, the harder it would be for anyone to spot him, either by accident or because they were looking for him.

Glancing around the room one last time Harry felt a brief touch of regret. His latest actions had worried enough people as it was already. And yet he was about to do something which would give people more grey hair than he had already given them.

As he had said to Voldemort, he was willing to give up his own life if it meant that Draco would be able to live.

And that was pretty much what he intended to do.

Harry climbed onto the windowsill and dropped his legs over the edge before he turned around so his whole weight was on his arms. Letting out a breath, Harry lowered himself, his feet searching for somewhere to stand on and then he was climbing.

It was a good thing that Voldemort had chosen this location for his rooms. Since there was no wall opposite the one he was climbing, it lessened the risk of being spotted. The quickly falling darkness would help him hiding and because of the increasing wind, most people would be inside for the night now.

On the other hand, if he slipped and fell, there would be no one to save him. Currently he was three story above the ground, the landing would hurt.

Harry cursed when he stretched his right leg to its limit, yet finding no crack or ledge he could place his foot on. Glancing to both sides he tried to find somewhere else he could move to. Finding none, he gnawed on his lower lip, trying to figure out which of his two options he should choose.

First, he could climb up again until he found somewhere he could move to one of the sides. Then he could climb down again and hope that he would not find another blind spot.

Or, he could jump.

It seemed rather far to the ground, but surely it was just a part of his imagination. If he was at the ground, he would know that he was not that far up. And it would get him faster down than option number one.

Not giving himself more time to mull over it, Harry let go. Gravity set in right away, pulling Harry downwards. Harry kicked out, creating distance between himself and the wall, and twisting around so he was in a position he hoped would lessen the impact with the ground.

He landed harder than he had counted on, wincing at the impact. A quick check proved that nothing was broken, but he would be sore come tomorrow.

Getting on his feet, Harry couldn't resist looking up at where he had jumped from. Even from the ground he had been pretty high up, good thing that he had jumped before he had realised that.

The sound of gravel crushing under feet alerted Harry that he was not alone. Desperate he looked around, trying to find a hiding place. He couldn't afford to be seen. In his current attire he would gather too much attention and he very much doubted that they would believe that he was merely sleepwalking.

No, it was better to hide, but where?

The footsteps neared, and now Harry could see light come from around a corner, meaning that its source was near, much nearer than he liked to think about.

He dived into a bush, biting down on his tongue to prevent any sound from leaving him as thorns dug into his skin and got tangled up in his hair. It had been at the last moment, because two people, both women by the look of it, rounded the corner as he tried to find his balance in his crouched position.

Harry froze when he realised who it was that was coming towards him, Narcissa and Bellatrix. One looking rather red-eyed, while the other sister held a comforting arm around her. Neither said anything as they came to a stop not far from where Harry was hiding.

As Bellatrix lifted her wand so the light spread over a bigger area and stepped towards him, Harry knew he was in trouble. Either they had heard him fall, though Harry doubted that, or the witch had a freaky sixth sense that told her where he was. Considering that it was Bellatrix, Harry wouldn't be surprised if the latter was actually the case.

As she came closer, Harry leaned backwards, trying to move away from her without making too much noise.

As he reached behind him, Harry fingers brushed over something furry and soft, sending it into movement and it darted past him and out of the bushes they both had been hiding in. In the short moment the creature passed through the light, Harry got a good look at it and had to bite back laughter from the relief he felt.

"Just a rabbit." The disappointment in Bellatrix's voice was clear as she lowered her wand, now only lighting up a small area around the duo.

Narcissa stepped forward, her eyes not moving from where Harry was hiding, almost as if she knew that he was there. Unsure of what else he could do, Harry placed a finger over his lips, signalling for her to not out him.

Whether Narcissa actually was able to see him or not, Harry didn't know, but the witch placed a hand on Bellatrix's arm, giving her sister a strained smile. "It is cold, let us go inside."

Bellatrix pushed her lips, looking ready to protest. But the woman nodded and led Lady Malfoy along the patch they had been following before they had come to a stop.

Harry waited until the sounds of their footsteps were gone. He couldn't believe how lucky he had been. Narcissa could easily have ratted him out, and yet she had not.

He didn't sit around and mull over it, as it was he already wasted enough time. If he kept up like this, he wouldn't even get to leave Hogwarts' ground before his absence was noticed.

So, he rose to his feet, the thorns ripping clothes and skin alike and he felt small drops of blood flood from the ruptures. He remembered that Aunt Petunia once had told Dudley that it hurt less to simply rip off the first aid than taking it slowly. He wasn't sure if it applied for this kind of situation, but it was worth a try if he didn't want to stay here the whole night and try to untangle his legs from the bush.

He half stumbled out of the bush with one move, determined not to follow anymore of that kind of advice if he should remember more. That had hurt.

With a hand on the wall Harry limped down the patch, choosing the opposite direction of which the two witches had gone.

Each step send small flames up his sides, alerting Harry that he might had damaged more with his fall than he first had believed.

Gritting his teeth Harry changed course and left the wall he had used as support. Before he left there was something he needed to get in order.

He went for the shed where students could store their brooms away when they were not being used. After all, he needed some kind of travelling device if he didn't want to take the tour on foot. And he doubted very much that his guide, or his still tender stomach for the matter, would appreciate flooing.

That was, if he could convince her to help him.

Wards were put up to prevent students from gaining entrance without permission by using magic on the heavy lock on the door. Picking up a fist sized stone and weighting it in his hand, Harry gave the lock a speculative look. It looked rather heavy and new, not yet weakened by the weather, though that could be magic's doing.

Smashing the stone against the lock several times, Harry watched with satisfaction as the lock broke and fell to the ground. It felt good to take his frustrations out on something which did not hit back.

He kicked the lock into the tall grass where it would not be in his way, before opening the heavy door and stepped inside.

Broom after broom was lined up after each other in a room which was much bigger on the inside than it had looked to be from the outside.

Harry passed the first fifty brooms or so without as much as a glance. Having been there that time Draco had decided to teach him how to fly, Harry was very much aware of how it was organised. The better and pricey brooms were kept in the back of the room, and those were the ones he needed. While the ones in front would be steady, perfect for a beginner, they lacked the speed he needed.

In the very back of the shed he found what he had been looking for, Draco's Firebolt standing among six others of the same kind. It was the fastest broom on the market and exactly what he needed for the plan he had in mind.

Dropping the stone, Harry grabbed two of the brooms, Draco's and someone else's, though he wasn't sure whom it might belong to and then he left. No alarm had sounded, but it didn't mean that someone was not on their way. He needed to hurry if he didn't want to be caught.

As soon as he was out of the door Harry jumped onto one of the brooms and set off, keeping the other broom close to his side as he flew through the air, heading off to where he hoped he would be able to find the help he needed for the next step in his plan.

Stopping at one of the holes in the walls Harry peeked inside, ready to move on if someone was in there.

But the Owlery was empty of people at this time, which was lucky for Harry as he had no idea what he was supposed to do if he ran into someone.

He only knew that he would not allow anyone to stop him.

Seeing as owls were nocturnal it didn't surprise him to find the birds awake at this hour. Knowing that the hole was too small for him to go in through with both of the brooms, Harry shifted his weight uncomfortably on the one he was on. The door was locked, and if he got it open, it would be in a way which would set off the birds, something he didn't desire.

He was still hovering outside the tower when a white form detached itself from the resting masses, flew down from its perch and landed in the hole Harry had been looking through.

Golden eyes watched him with an intensity Harry was quite sure that an owl shouldn't be able to. On the other hand, this one was supposed to be smart so maybe he wasn't that far of. "Listen." He spoke gently so not to spook the owl. "I know that you don't like me, but I really need your help. They said that you could track anyone down, no matter what kind of wards they were hidden behind." It didn't hurt to praise the snowy owl and the moment Theo's name was brought up, he had Hedwig's attention rather than the cold attitude he had been regarded with so far.

"Theo's friend, Draco, is missing. I need you to lead me to where he is."

The words had barely left his mouth before Hedwig took off, forcing Harry to lean backwards in an awkward angle to avoid getting a face full of owl.

Not wanting to be left behind, Harry turned the brooms and sped after her, the owl already having moved quite the distance in the time it had taken Harry to regain his balance so he wouldn't fall off the broom.

He flew up at the side of Hedwig, who disregarded his entire presence after a short glance in his direction, and lay down so his upper body formed after the broom's lines. They would be flying for quite a while, he suspected, and there was no reason for him not to try and get comfortable while they were on the move.

Before passing through where he knew the wards of Hogwarts should be, Harry couldn't resist taking a last glance backwards. In the darkness, Hogwarts was breathtaking.

Even with him this high up, the castle towered over him, a magnificent picture. It was black against a dark blue sky, the windows illuminated every bit of the castle, it almost looked like taken right out of a fairy tale.

It broke his heart to know that this time might be the last time he saw what had been his home for over six years.

Forcing his gaze away from the impressive sight, Harry instead focussed on the dark clouds they were heading towards.

A long flight, indeed.

**)00(**

One and half an hour later Harry regretted that he had not taken the time to change his clothes before taking off. While pretty, the pyjamas did nothing to protect him from the cold air this high up. He wished that the wind would numb the rest of his body instead of only his hands and feet, because the falling raindrops made his body shiver in an uncontrollable way which had Harry fearing that he would lose his grip on the brooms if he did not pay attention all the time.

And forty-five meters were quite the length to fall.

Hedwig was flying ahead of him, though not so far that he couldn't see her all the time.

The owl seemed mostly unaffected by the way the weather had turned bad on them. She followed the wind in a way it helped her moving in the direction she wanted to, instead of throwing her around like she weighted nothing.

He had found that the position Draco had taught him was not meant for long distance flights and changed his position every so often in hope of finding a more comfortable position.

He had long ago lost any sense of where they were heading. It was a little hard to keep track of where he was, when he was flying high up and only had the lights of the cities and towns they passed far below them that sometimes broke the otherwise constant darkness around them.

Harry's eyes didn't waver from Hedwig's small, white form ahead of him. Losing sight of her would mean losing sight of his mean to find Draco, which was unacceptable.

So, when Hedwig suddenly nosedived, Harry followed without a thought, having to roll with the brooms to avoid hitting some of the many branches he suddenly found himself surrounded by.

Dropping lower, and trying to keep an eye on Hedwig, who was moving unbothered forward, Harry found himself free from the branches and used a moment to look around.

It was dark, but his eyes had had time to grow accustomed to it, allowing him to see far more details than he would normally have been able to.

He was in a forest and a rather old one if he should judge from the trees he was surrounded by. Down here far less of the rain reached him, the drops stopped by the heavy treetops.

Looking around, panic rose inside his chest. In the time he had been distracted, Hedwig had continued moving, and now she was nowhere to be seen.

She couldn't have gotten far, so maybe he just needed to fly around a little and then he would be able to see her. With the kind of colours her feathers had, it would be hard for the owl to hide from being spotted.

Angling the brooms he flew up so he was just below the treetops. Up here there was less of a risk of being seen by someone unwelcome. There had to be a reason to why Hedwig had led him to this forest, and Harry doubted that it was because she wanted to hunt for a late night snack.

So he started circling, moving further and further from the spot he had descended into the forest from. His eyes darted around, trying to catch sight of Hedwig's body. What use did she have as a guide if she didn't wait for him to follow her?

He ducked under a branch, pausing to look around. There was still no sign of where Hedwig had gone. He couldn't continue like this or he would be flying around all night without finding anything of use.

If not because he didn't know how long he had before Draco died, he would have been inclined to stop for now and wait until dawn so he could better see where he was flying.

A red light came from below, causing Harry to roll sideways to avoid getting hit by it. In the move, he let go of the second broom he had brought with him.

Cursing Harry threw himself and the broom he was on towards the other one. He couldn't afford losing the second broom. It was the one Draco was supposed to ride back on. Two people on one broom would slow them down too much for them to escape once he got Draco.

A heavy forced slammed into Harry's side, sending him spinning downwards, his fingers clenching in a death grip around the broom he somehow managed to stay on.

He was nearing the ground with a dangerous speed. If this kept on, he would crash, and with the way it was going right now, he wouldn't get out of it unscratched.

Harry rolled with the force, though he could not see anything that should cause it, he certainly felt the weight pressing against his whole being, forcing him downwards and out of the safety he had in the air.

The tip of his toes brushed against the crisp grass, kicking leaves up before he managed to get the broom back on course.

The world took a few seconds to stop spinning around him, and by that time Harry was up in the air again. He was well aware that he couldn't stop here. Whoever was here was serious about their attacks, and he held no desire to see what should happen if they actually got their hands on him.

Glancing down Harry was able to make out his attackers' silhouettes in the light from the spells they were throwing at him.

There were three people below him that he could see. Spread out they each covered the biggest spaces between the trees, those spots he would have been most likely to slip out through. At this point the trees were standing too close for him to slip through other ways.

Cursing Harry glanced upwards, knowing that it would do no good. If he tried that way, it would take time to get through the many layers of branches which were entangled in each other.

He was trapped.

His short moment of inattention costed him dearly.

A red beam caught the handle of the broom, causing it to come to a shuttering stop before it dropped and Harry fell along with it.

Unlike when he had jumped, Harry had the strangest sense of foreboding when he fell through the air. He reached out for the branches, wanting to grab hold of them so they could stop, or at least slow down, his fall, unfortunately it was too late and they were already out of his reach.

Much sooner than it should have been possible fromthe height he had fallen from, Harry hit the ground hard and painfully.

The wind was knocked out of him and dizziness set in, making him feel nauseous. When he tried to move his head Harry was surprised to find it hurting. Had he hit it when he crashed? It wouldn't surprise him if that had happened, but he couldn't remember it.

As he lay on his side, Harry didn't dare to open his eyes, fearing that the world would be spinning around him. One hand was resting on the ground while his left one still had a secure grip on the broom he had been riding.

Harry knew that Draco's broom wouldn't be any good now. He had felt how it broke under the landing, no magic was able to fix that kind of damage done to a broom such as a Firebolt.

People were approaching him, though he was facing the wrong direction, Harry could still hear them coming. They were moving with caution, as if they expected him to jump up and attack them.

Harry was quite surprised that they hadn't bothered to stun him, but maybe that would work in his favour. He just needed to get one chance.

Gritting his teeth, Harry rolled around so he was facing his ambushers. He blew a few strands of long hair out of his face with a frustrated huff, ignoring the pain that was shooting through his body at this. If he hadn't been sure that he would be bruised come tomorrow before, he sure as hell was now.

Some of them ran they were the ones to first enter his range of vision.

Someone crunched down next to him and cold hands were on his cheeks, stopping Harry from moving his face away from them. The person's mouth was moving, but it took him a moment to gather himself enough to be able to listen to what was being said.

"-Potter kid." Harry blinked, knowing that this wasn't good as he found himself looking up in the face of a tired Remus Lupin. The golden eyes were watching him keenly, almost as if the man believed that Harry would disappear between his hands if he looked away for a moment.

Feeling his left arm being picked up Harry looked away from Lupin and at the person holding his limb. "It is a bonding bracelet. It has to come off before we can take him to the camp, otherwise the one who put it on will be able to find us all." There was a touch of desperation in the other's voice.

Rage consumed him from seemingly nowhere at the sight of Peter Pettigrew, and Harry tried to yank his hand back while using the other to scratch the man at as many possible places as he could reach.

A hand placed on his chest pinned him to the ground, making tears well up in his eyes as stones and roots pressed against his bruised back. "Sorry pup, but it is best if you're not awake for this. Stupefy."

The last thing Harry thought before losing consciousness was that Lupin's voice sounded much like the one who had helped Astoria and him when they came out of the fire.

Then blackness consumed him.

**Next: Harry meets Dumbledore and we get to see some of Harry's and Severus' early time together.**

**Until next time**


End file.
